Going Home
by do i need a pen name
Summary: It's been a year and a half since that day at Bad Wolf Bay. Rose is trying to fit in with her new life when someone from the Doctor's past arrives. Rose might just have found a way back to the universe she will always call home...COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**Going Home**

**Chapter One**

"I still say she likes me better." Came a voice from inside the office.

"She can't like you better." Another voice-a woman's this time-retorted. "I'm her sister. I see her every day."

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder." The man's voice said. "Emily sees you all the time, so she's used to you being around. But when I come over, she's always excited to see me."

The man who had previously been standing outside the slightly open office door gave a slight shake of his head, before pushing the door open all the way.

"Are you two still arguing about that?" Pete asked in an amused voice.

"Tell him, dad." Rose said, turning to face him, and not looking at all surprised to see him there. "Tell Mickey that Emily likes me better than him."

"She's lying." Mickey said. "Emily likes me better."

"I can't." Pete told them. "Because you're both wrong. Emily likes me better, I'm her father."

Rose rolled her eyes, then put on her business-like face. "Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Tyler?"

"No, that's alright, Ms. Tyler." Pete responded. "I just stopped by to tell my daughter that I'm going home now. I don't want her mother to kill me for being late to my own daughter's birthday party."

Rose and Mickey were both silent when he said this. Pete rolled his eyes when he saw that.

"You two were arguing about who Emily likes better, and you managed to forget that today was her first birthday?" Pete asked in amazement.

"…No." Mickey said slowly. "We didn't forget about that. How could we forget about the party Jackie has been talking about for months?"

"You go on, dad." Rose cut in. "I've just got to finish this one last report, then I'll come home as well. What about you Mickey?"

"I'll wait for you." Mickey said with a shrug.

Pete nodded. "I'll tell Jacks to expect you within the hour, then. See you soon."

"Bye." Rose called out after him as he left her office.

Mickey stood up from the chair he had been sitting in, across from Rose.

"I've just got to get my stuff from downstairs." He told her as he, too, walked towards the door. "D'you want me to come back up here to get you?"

Rose shook her head as her eyes drifted back to the computer screen before her. "That's alright. I'll meet you downstairs, I've just got to print this."

Mickey nodded as well, and exited the room, leaving Rose alone in her office.

Rose sighed as Mickey shut the door behind him. She had been living here, in 'Pete's Universe', for almost two years now. It had been a year and a half since that day on Bad Wolf Bay…the day she had said good-bye to the Doctor for the last time.

The Doctor…she missed him so much. It had been so hard for Rose to accept that she was never going to travel in the Tardis to unknown worlds ever again, never hear the familiar of the Tardis de-materializing, never see the Doctor again…

Rose shook her head slightly to clear her thoughts. All of that was gone now, she was stuck in this universe for the rest of time, there was no use dwelling on the matter when she had work to do.

Shortly before her sister, Emily, had been born, Rose had decided to put the knowledge she had gotten from her travels with the Doctor to good use. And where better to use that knowledge, then at Torchwood? With Pete in charge now, it hadn't been that hard for Rose to get a job. And here she was, a year later, a successful businesswoman, with a stable job and a loving family and friends. But she still missed the Doctor. She would always miss him…

Rose was jolted from her thoughts by a sound she thought she would never hear again. Her eyes went wide as the sound grew louder. It was real, and it was coming from the roof—right above Rose's office on the top floor.

Forgetting all about the report she was supposed to be finishing, Rose leapt up from her chair and raced from her office. She almost ran into Mickey, who had decided to come back upstairs to get her.

"What's wrong?" Mickey yelled as Rose ran towards the stairwell.

"Can't you hear it?" Rose yelled back, almost at the emergency stairs by now. "It's the Tardis!"

Rose threw the door open and ran as fast as she could up the flight of stairs. She arrived on the roof just in time to see the Tardis materializing. But, it wasn't the same. The Tardis looked different, very different.

Mickey caught up with Rose, as she stood frozen across from a red telephone booth. Through the plated glass she could see that there was no one inside of it.

"What's that doing there?" Mickey asked, looking confused. "I thought you said something about the Tardis?"

"I heard it." Rose said softly, not taking her eyes off the phone booth. "And I came up here, and that thing materialized out of nowhere, just like the Tardis."

Before Mickey could respond, however, the door to the phone booth opened, seemingly of it's own accord. Both Rose and Mickey's jaws dropped when they saw what came out of it.

"K-9." Rose said in amazement at the same time Mickey said, "Tin dog."

"Identify yourselves." K-9 said, his scanner pointed at Rose and Mickey.

"It's us." Rose said, gesturing to herself and Mickey. "Rose and Mickey. Don't you remember us, K-9?"

"Negative." K-9 responded. "I have never met you. Mistress?"

"What is it, K-9?" A woman's voice called from inside the phone booth. "Are we still stuck in the same spot?"

"Sarah Jane knows us." Rose insisted. "You'll see."

"Rose, you're arguing with the tin dog." Mickey said, just as a woman stepped out of the phone booth.

"Oh, hello there." The blonde woman said, looking at the two of them. "Can I help you?"

"You aren't Sarah Jane." Rose said in a slightly accusatory tone.

The woman smiled pleasantly. "No, I'm not. You can call me Romana."

**a/n-this is my first Doctor Who fic, tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Romana?" Rose repeated.

The woman nodded eagerly. "My full name is really Romanadvoratrelundar. But I think Romana is easier." She frowned slightly here. "I told the Doctor that calling me Fred was fine, but he didn't listen. As usual."

"You know the Doctor?" Rose asked, her eyes suddenly bright.

Romana smiled reminiscently. "He's the one that got me off of Gallifrey. Then got me stuck in E-space. Why? Do you know the Doctor?"

Rose became silent at this question.

"Yeah, we did." Mickey answered for her. "But he's gone now."

"I'll just have to find him again then, won't I?" Romana asked brightly. "We really do need to catch up on things. It's been a few years…"

She turned around and was about to walk back into the phone booth when Rose spoke again.

"Are you a Time Lord as well?" She said softly.

Romana stopped dead, and turned around. "Yes, I am."

"The Doctor would be pleased." Rose commented with a sad sort of smile on her face. "The Face of Boe was wrong. He isn't alone anymore."

"Why would the Doctor be alone?" Romana asked, looking confused.

Mickey and Rose just looked at her strangely.

"He always has travelling companions." Romana reasoned. "I was one of them, once. And we picked up Adric before I left."

"Where were you?" Rose asked cautiously. "Where did he leave you?"

"In another universe." Romana replied. "Someone there needed me. But the Doctor left me K-9. We built this Tardis because we thought it was time to come home. I haven't seen Gallifrey in ages." She paused here and took in her surroundings for the first time. "Although, this is earth. London, by the looks of things."

Rose turned to Mickey. "She doesn't know."

"Know what?" Romana asked, raising her eyebrows.

Rose was silent. Mickey didn't answer this time, though. Rose knew more about the Time War than he did.

"There was a war." Rose said softly, avoiding Romana's gaze. "And the Time Lords lost."

"We…lost?" Romana said, her eyes going wide. "But…that's not possible. K-9, is that possible?"

"Affirmative, mistress." K-9 responded. "If the Time Lords were faced with a strong enough enemy, the odds of them losing are very high."

"W-What about Gallifrey?" Romana asked. "What happened to it?"

"It was destroyed." Rose said. "The Doctor said he didn't have a choice. There wasn't another way to destroy them."

"Who?" Romana asked after a moment. "Who was it?"

"The Daleks." Rose replied.

Romana collapsed slightly against the side of her Tardis. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. A minute later, she opened them again.

"I knew something was wrong." Romana said softly. "I got a telepathic distress call. It was calling me home, but it was weak, and I had no way of getting back. It took a while for K-9 and I to build this Tardis. He has all of the plans stored inside of him, but it took time to collect all the right parts. If I had known things were this bad, I would have tried to be home a lot sooner."

She gave an empty laugh here. "I thought it was just the Time Lords trying to bring me back home again. When we got stuck in E-Space, the Doctor was on his way to bring me home. Gallifrey had _summoned_ us."

"Why were you with the Doctor if the other Time Lords wanted you back home?" Rose asked with interest.

"We had a mission." Romana replied. "We were supposed to find the Key to Time."

"There's a Key to Time?" Mickey said.

Romana shook her head. "Not anymore. After we found it, we had to destroy it, because someone else wanted it for destructive purposes. But tell me, how do you know the Doctor?"

"He blew up the shop I worked in." Rose said. "Once it was all over, he invited me to come travel with him in the Tardis. That was about three years ago. And Mickey joined us a while later."

"I suppose you decided it was about time to come home, then?" Romana asked, looking around. "If you say he's gone now?"

"That was an accident." Rose said. "We're in a parallel universe, here. We got here by accident. According to the Doctor, it should be impossible to travel between the different universes, because all of the Time Lords are gone except for him…and you now, I suppose. He had to burn up an entire sun just to be able to transmit an image into this universe to say good-bye to me."

Romana was silent for a moment. Then she took a deep breath and nodded to herself. She looked resolutely at Mickey and Rose standing before her.

"I'm going to get back to your universe." Romana told them. "If I am one of the last two Time Lords left, then I need to find the Doctor."

"Can I come with?" Rose asked immediately.

"Rose, you can't." Mickey said suddenly, before Romana could respond. "What about your mum? And now you have your dad here. Rose, what about Emily?"

"But the Doctor." Rose said, turning to Mickey and almost pleading with him. "I'll be able to get back to the Doctor again. Besides, mum and dad and Emily could come with." She turned to Romana. "Couldn't they?"

"I…suppose." Romana said hesitantly. "But this isn't going to be easy. Even if I am a Time Lord, now that the rest of my people are gone the only way to get back to another universe is to find a rip in this one."

"That's how the Cyber Men did it." Mickey said. "They found a rip in time and space that Torchwood had created, and they used it to invade Earth."

Romana shook her head slightly. "They would be the ones to do it. But back to what you were saying before, Rose. If I did take your family with me, would it be what they wanted? Do you think they would want to go to another world, totally different from their own?"

Rose was silent for a moment, as she looked down at her shoes. Finally she looked up to meet Romana's eye.

"Back home, my dad's dead." She said softly. "Mum raised me all by herself. When she found out that there was another universe, where dad was alive, she jumped at the chance to come here. He couldn't come back to our world…mum couldn't explain how dad was alive again."

Romana stood there for a moment, looking at Rose compassionately, before speaking again.

"If it's what you want," She began, "Then I can take you with me. There's plenty of room in the Tardis. But if you're going to come, then I strongly suggest you say goodbye to your family. If the Doctor could only get an image into this universe, then it'll probably be near to impossible for us to get out. And after that, there won't be a way for us to get back in."

Rose nodded once, and then turned to Mickey. "What about you? Are you going to come with?"

Even before she had finished speaking, Mickey was shaking his head no.

"I can't, Rose." He said. "You know that. I stayed here, because my gran is alive here. I'm not going to leave her."

Rose turned back to Romana then. "Tonight is my sister's birthday. Can I have tonight to say goodbye to everyone? Then we can leave tomorrow."

"Take all the time you need." Romana said. "I'll stay here tonight." She continued, jerking her head in the direction of her Tardis. "Just come here when you're ready."

"I will." Rose said, before turning to leave, with Mickey at her side, to go to Emily's birthday party.

Romana watched the two of them go with a sad expression on her face. With a sigh she looked down at K-9, who was sitting beside her.

"Come on, boy. We have to get ready for tomorrow." Romana said, holding the door of the Tardis open for him. Once he was inside, she turned to follow him, but glanced back at the door Rose and Mickey had left through.

"I just hope she knows what she's doing."


	3. Chapter 3

**a/n-I would just like to apologize profusely for taking so long to update. It took about a month for me to get over the major writer's block I was having before I started writing the next chapter. And then when I was almost finished with it, I realized that I was going to need another chapter before it. So the good news is that Chapter Four should be out within a week. Hope you like Chapter Three.**

**Disclaimer-In case I haven't mentioned it before, I don't own Doctor Who, or anything to do with it.**

Chapter Three

"Do you think Mum will kill me when I tell her?" Rose asked Mickey as the two walked back down the stairs from the roof.

Mickey shrugged. "I'm sure she'll understand what you're doing. But she'll be upset that you're leaving again, and never coming back. And just to be on the safe side, if I were you, I wouldn't tell her how risky it's going to be when you try to go back to our world."

"You're probably right, she would freak out if I told her that." Rose agreed.

"That's me, Mickey the Idiot, always right about everything."

Rose gave him a smile. "I'm just gonna get my jacket from my office, then I'm going home. Do you want a ride to the party?"

Mickey shrugged. "Why not?" Then, "Hey, I talked to Jake the other day. He said he'd be able to make it back for tonight."

"Pete'll be pleased." Rose said as she entered her office. "Jake's been gone for ages. There can't be that many factories still out there."

Mickey shrugged as Rose slipped her jacket around her shoulders. "The easy part is destroying all of the Cybermen. But Cybus was in control of all sorts of different companies. The hard part is finding out what all of them were."

"Let's go." Rose said, ushering Mickey out of her office. "Mum's going to be upset enough as it is because I'm leaving. I don't want to make her mad by being late for the party. Besides," She added, looking at Mickey over her shoulder, "I'm going to prove to you once and for all that I am Emily's favorite."

"Good luck with that one." Mickey said, shaking his head as the two walked towards the elevator.

Twenty minutes later, they were standing in front of the door to the Tyler Mansion. Rose gave a small smile as she remembered the first time her mother had seen the house. Jackie hadn't exactly had a problem with their flat in the other universe but the mansion in this universe was so much better, for obvious reasons.

Rose took a deep breath, and reached for the doorknob.

"Here goes nothing." She murmured. And she turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Once she and Mickey were inside, however, they were quite surprised when no one met them right inside the door. In fact, it was practically silent inside of the house.

"This is creepy." Rose whispered, too surprised to talk at a normal level.

Mickey held back a laugh. "You know Jackie. She's probably holding everyone hostage in the dining room until you get there."

"She would not." Rose shot back. "Now come one, let's go find everyone."

It wasn't long before they found everyone sitting in the dining room, enjoying Jackie's home-cooked meal, not having bothered to wait for Rose and Mickey to get there. In fact, upon entering the room, they discovered that even Jake had made it there before them, his excuse being that he didn't want to die at the hands of Jackie Tyler for which Rose really couldn't blame him.

In Rose's opinion, the rest of the night went according to her mother's plans, especially seeing as it was a party for a one-year old. After everyone had gone home and Pete had gone upstairs to put Emily to bed, Rose cornered her mother in the kitchen, where Jackie had been doing some of the dishes from dinner.

"Mum," Rose said tentatively, "Do you think we could talk?"

"About what, dear?" Jackie asked, turning away from the sink to face her oldest daughter. "Is something wrong?"

Rose bit her lip. "You could say that." She said slowly. "Although, I'm sure things could be—or get—much worse."

Jackie just looked at Rose in confusion.

"So, you know how Mickey and I were a bit late for dinner today?" Rose asked.

Jackie nodded.

"Well, we sort of met someone at work."

"Who was it?" Jackie asked curiously. "Anyone I know?"

Rose shook her head quickly. "No, we were just meeting her for the first time as well." Rose paused, unsure as to how she should continue. "Her name is Romana…and we met her because her…ship landed on the roof of the Torchwood Tower."

"Did you tell Pete about this?" Jackie asked quickly, sounding a bit worried.

Again, Rose shook her head. "She wasn't dangerous. You see, Romana used to know the Doctor. She used to travel with him. And…she's a Time Lady."

Jackie was silent for a moment, processing all of that.

"But I thought you said the Doctor was the last of his kind left?" Jackie contradicted. "You said something about a Time War."

This time Rose nodded.

"The Doctor told me that the only way to end the war involved killing everyone. He was the only survivor…well, except for the Daleks we found later on. But it turns out that Romana wasn't there for the war; she didn't know anything about it when I mentioned it to her." Rose took a deep breath here. "Mum, Romana was stuck in another universe, and she got out with the Tardis she built."

"Another universe…" Jackie repeated, then suddenly her eyes widened in understanding. "No, Rose, you weren't thinking…You aren't going to try and go back…Are you?"

"Mum," Rose began, in a pleading tone, "You have to understand. This is my one chance to go back. Romana wants to find the Doctor, since there is no one else left, and she offered me a ride back to our universe." Rose paused here. "Mum, I want to go back—I _need_ to go back."

"And I suppose you're just going to leave me behind?" Jackie asked, her temper starting to get the best of her. "You're just going to go traipsing off on another adventure, and never come home again?"

"It's not like that, mum." Rose insisted, taking a step closer to her mother. "I really don't want to leave you behind. I'd want you to come with, but Pete can't just show up alive again, and I know you couldn't lose him again, especially if you have a choice." Rose gave a small smile. "And who knows, maybe I'm able to make inter-universe calls on my super-phone."

"If you remember this time." Jackie muttered.

"Don't be like that, mum." Rose said. "I know you're upset, but I'm leaving no matter what. This is my only chance to get back to the Doctor, and you always say you just want me to be happy."

"Will you be able to come back?" Jackie asked softly after a minute of silence. "I thought the universe was supposed to collapse if anyone traveled between the worlds again?"

Rose shrugged. "Maybe having another Time Lord around will help things out."

Jackie was silent again after this. Finally, when a couple minutes had passed, she spoke up again.

"You're right. I do want you to be happy. And I know you'd really do everything you could to come back here again, or at least try and contact me in some way. You're a good girl, Rose." Jackie smiled softly here. "And I also know there's no stopping you, no matter how much I want you to stay." Jackie suddenly got serious. "There's just one thing I want you to do for me."

"Yes?" Rose asked slowly, looking a bit taken aback by her mother's sudden seriousness.

"When you find the Doctor, make sure you slap him for me. No one gets my Rose upset and gets away with it." Jackie declared.

Rose laughed lightly. "I'll make sure he knows it's from you."

Jackie smiled sadly at her daughter. "I'll miss you, Rose."

"I'll miss you too, mum." Rose replied, suddenly throwing her arms around her mother's neck.

"I'll tell Emily all about her older sister." Jackie promised, speaking into Rose's shoulder.

"You make sure to do that." Rose replied.

When they broke apart, both mother and daughter were trying unsuccessfully to hold back their tears. Jackie brushed her tears away lightly with the dishtowel, and then pushed Rose softly towards the door.

"Go on, now. I'll finish cleaning up this mess on my own." Jackie told her. "You go upstairs and pack. I'm sure you'll have to be up bright and early tomorrow morning. You can say goodbye to Pete and Emily then, as well."

Rose nodded.

"G'Night, mum."

"Sweet dreams." Jackie replied. Rose turned around, and Jackie watched her walk away through blurred vision as her tears ran steadily down her cheeks.

* * *

Romana sighed as the lights in her Tardis dimmed, going on a recharging cycle. K-9 was off calculating something or other that would be needed for their next trip, and all she really had to do was make sure the Tardis had enough energy to make that trip. Consequently, this meant that Romana now had a lot of time to think about what Rose had told her.

Really, it hadn't been a very long time since she and the Doctor had parted ways. To tell you the truth, time really wasn't on Romana's side, never mind the fact that she was a Time Lady. She and the Doctor had gotten stuck in E-Space when they were supposed to be going back to Gallifrey, and shortly after that she had remained there when the Doctor went back to N-Space. Romana had stayed to help free the Tharils but it wasn't so long after the Doctor had gone when she received the telepathic distress call from Gallifrey. And now she knew what they had wanted.

The whole time Romana had been with the Doctor, finding the key to time and afterwards, she had known, somewhere inside of her, that one day Gallifrey would summon her. They would expect her to come back obediently and without a word, and in the beginning that was what she had expected to do. But things had changed as time passed. Romana had grown to love the feeling she had when someone was saved.

Then the day came when Romana and the Doctor received an official summons from Gallifrey.

Romana hadn't wanted to go, but the Doctor had decided that the best thing to do would be to answer, and so they had gone. At least, they had meant to. Somehow they'd ended up in a totally different universe, where they had found Adric, and where Romana had stayed behind.

Of course, she'd hardly been there for more than a year when she received the telepathic distress signal from Gallifrey. She chuckled softly to herself as she thought about that. Her appearance hadn't changed one bit since she had last seen the Doctor, yet he must have regenerated at least once. Time moved differently in the two universes they'd been in. Who really knew how much time had really passed since Romana and the Doctor had parted company?

Romana sighed as she thought about that. Time. It was the sole thing responsible for the destruction of her home, and all of its people…save one. When she really thought about it, Romana wasn't the least bit surprised that the Doctor had been the one to end the war. All of the other Time Lords spent all of their time-ironically-cooped up on Gallifrey, not interfering with the rest of the universe, and, consequently, learning nothing about the universes secrets.

"Mistress?" K-9 said suddenly, interrupting Romana from her thoughts.

"Yes, K-9?" Romana asked, smiling pleasantly at the tin dog.

"Mistress, all calculations are complete." K-9 reported. "Powering down to restore energy levels."

"That sounds like a good idea." Romana said with a nod. "I think I'll turn in for the night, too. See you in the morning K-9."

"Good night, mistress." K-9 replied, before putting his head down and turning himself off.

"Good night, K-9." Romana said softly, thinking of the journey ahead of them as she gazed at the console. "And good luck."


	4. Chapter 4

"It feels like there's no one."-Ninth Doctor in _'Dalek'_

Chapter Four

The Doctor sighed as he looked at the console of the Tardis. Travelling through time and space had used to be somewhat of a thrill for him. He had been able to go throughout the universe, visiting different planets, and more often than not, helping its inhabitants.

But for some time now, his travelling had become something of a necessity; something he did to keep his mind from wandering. These days, there was one thing that seemed to occupy his thoughts constantly. And it was the one thing he knew he could never have back again.

Rose.

It had been over a year and a half ago that he had been able to contact her to say goodbye. But he hadn't wanted to say goodbye. All the Doctor had wanted to do on that day was rip another hole in the universe so that he would be able to hold Rose in his arms and never let her go.

But that wasn't possible.

There was no way that the Doctor could do that. Ripping a hole in the universe was bad enough, but when there was no one there to repair it, the damage would be catastrophic. And Rose wouldn't want that. Rose would understand. She knew that he would have come back if he could. She knew he had done everything he could just to say goodbye to her.

At least…he hoped she did. Again, he sighed.

The Doctor was interrupted from his thoughts by the appearance of his latest companion, Martha.

"So, where're we headed, Doctor?" She asked curiously. "I heard about this one planet, Barcelona, and it seemed nice."

The Doctor was shaking his head before she had even finished speaking.

"Anywhere but Barcelona." He informed her shortly. "I don't really fancy going there. Ever."

"Erm…Alright then." Martha said slowly. "Then how about we go back to Earth. We haven't been back there in ages. We can stop by and visit Jack."

"Sure." The Doctor said, turning back to the console once more. "Earth, 21st century it is, then."

* * *

"Sir, we're picking up strange readings from the rift. It's almost as if something just appeared out of nowhere on top of it." The technician said, looking up at his boss. 

Captain Jack Harkness leaned in closer to see the computer screen, with a serious expression on his face. His eyebrows knit in concentration at the readout, but then an expression of familiarity passed over his face.

"He took his time before showing up here again." He said softly, delight lighting up his features.

"But what is it, sir?" The technician asked, turning to face Jack.

"Nothing you need to worry about." Jack said offhandedly, turning around. "I'll handle this one myself. I should be back in a few hours."

And without another word, Jack was gone. Once he was out of the Torchwood building, Jack set off at a brisk pace towards the heart of Cardiff.

About ten minutes later, he was standing in front of the thing that had haunted his mind for years. He had waited for it to appear for more than a century, before finally finding it. After their reunion, the Doctor had promised to stop by for a visit. Of course, that had been a while ago. Knowing the Doctor, he had most likely forgotten his promise the moment he had said it. Martha was probably the one who had suggested the visit.

Reaching out, Jack stuck his key in the lock and turned it. It gave a resounding click, and he pushed the door open.

"Hello!" Jack called out, stepping inside of the Tardis. "Doctor? Martha? Anyone home?"

"Jack!" Was all he heard, before the blur that was Martha appeared out of nowhere and nearly knocked him senseless as she hugged him.

"So, did you miss me much?" Jack asked as Martha finally released him and he tried to regain his breath.

"Nope, not at all." Martha said with a wave of her hand, a grin spreading across her face. "But you should have heard the Doctor. Poor man, he just missed you _so_ much…"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure he did." He paused here, and looked around the room. "And speaking of the Doctor, where is he?"

Martha shrugged. "He disappeared somewhere when we landed. He might be off trying to fix something. It was a bit of a rough landing. But who knows?"

Jack narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "He's not going to get out of seeing me again that easily."

"He went that way." Martha said wearily, pointing into the depths of the Tardis.

As Jack walked off in the direction Martha had pointed, she followed behind questioning him about everything that had been going on since they had last seen each other.

"So, how have things been going at Torchwood?" Martha asked.

Now it was Jack's turn to shrug. "Just the usual. Nothing too interesting has dropped down to Earth in the past few months."

"What about the rift?" Martha continued.

"Actually," Jack began, "Now that you mention it, there was something just last night. I think I might mention it to the Doctor…if we ever find him."

"Mention what to me?" The Doctor's voice said from behind them. Then, "Captain Jack! I didn't hear you come aboard. How're things at Torchwood?"

"We were just talking about that." Jack replied. "We got some funny reports from the rift last night. Do you want to come by Torchwood to take a look at them?"

"Why not?" The Doctor replied. "I've been meaning to stop by Torchwood 3 one of these days."

* * *

"That's odd." 

Jack rose his eyebrows at the Doctor.

"We got that much from it." He said.

They were now in Jack's office, back in the Torchwood building. The Doctor had spent the past fifteen minutes staring silently at the previous day's reports of the rift's activity, before declaring them 'odd.'

"What's odd?" asked Martha.

The Doctor took a moment to answer.

"Those readings," He finally began, "They aren't from our universe."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, at the same time Martha said, "How is that possible?"

The Doctor took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair.

"The rift is very powerful, wouldn't you agree? It has enough energy to charge up the Tardis." The Doctor stated. "Tell me, Jack, was there any unusual activity reported from the rift when the Tardis materialized?"

Jack nodded. "That's how I knew you were here. We picked up readings from the Tardis on our scanners."

"Can we see them now?" The Doctor asked.

Jack nodded again. He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and a new window popped up on the screen next to the first.

The Doctor leaned back in and studied the two readings side-by-side for a moment before suddenly pointing at something on the screen.

"Look at that!" He said, looking a bit excited about something. "Do you see it?"

"See what?" Martha asked.

"They're the same." The Doctor replied triumphantly.

Both Martha and Jack just looked at him.

"There are many universes parallel to our own." He said slowly, and with a blank face. "Some of them are very similar to ours." He paused here, and took a deep breath.

"This morning the rift showed signs of unusual activity, because it was picking up the Tardis' energy signature." The Doctor continued slowly. "Last night, it showed almost identical readings, but they were fainter." He pointed at the screen again. "The activity level jumped, but not as much as when the Tardis materialized today."

"So," Jack began slowly, "Does that mean there's another Tardis out there in some parallel universe?"

The Doctor was shaking his head before Jack even finished speaking.

"It's impossible." He stated. "I was there. No one else survived. Besides, I would know." He tapped the side of his head lightly with his finger. "I would feel it, in here."

"Then what could have caused the rift to react like it did?" Martha asked. "What else is there that could have had an energy signature like the Tardis?"

"Who knows what kind of technology they have in a parallel universe?" The Doctor said with a shrug. "The last time I went to one, everyone had a zeppelin."

"But she does have a point, Doctor." Jack cut in. "This is the Tardis we're talking about. No matter what universe you're in, Time Lord technology is pretty advanced."

The Doctor threw his hands up in defeat.

"Fine." He said with a sigh. "But it doesn't really matter. The rift was picking something up in a parallel universe, and I sealed all of the cracks. We are never going to find out what made the rift react like that."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Rose stood silently in front of the Tyler Mansion, just staring at it and thinking about some of the things that had happened there in the past couple of years.

It had changed so much in the few years it had been since she had first come to this parallel universe, and it had changed even more once she and her mother had moved in there. The first thing Jackie did when she got to the parallel universe was fire practically the whole staff. She had spent twenty years being responsible for her own home, and old habits die hard.

Then, less then a year after that, Emily had been born, bringing a new sense of family into the house. Emily had probably been the best thing that could've happened to Jackie. Because now that Rose was leaving for good, Jackie would still have a daughter to raise and take care of.

Rose's departure would be the cause of yet another change in the Tyler Mansion. Emily wouldn't grow up with her older sister there. Jackie wouldn't have anyone to talk to about things that had happened before in the other universe. Pete couldn't ask anyone their opinion about some report he was working on, without having to go to the office. Unless, of course, Mickey stopped by, which he would probably do more often once Rose was gone, to try and make up for her absence.

"Are you ready to leave?" Pete's voice asked, as he came out of the house.

Rose nodded, still without uttering a single word. She had explained everything to Pete this morning over breakfast. And she had also tried to get Emily to understand that she would never see her big sister again. That one hadn't been very successful, seeing as Emily was still only a baby and really didn't understand what Rose was telling her. So now, Pete was driving her to work, nothing too unusual about that. Except this time, he would be coming home alone and Rose would hopefully be on her way back to the one place she had never wanted to leave behind.

Rose spent the rest of the ride to the Torchwood building in silence, and in no time at all it seemed, Pete was pulling the car to a stop and turning the engine off. Before he got out of the car, however, he turned to face Rose. He took a deep breath before speaking.

"I just wanted to tell you that it's been an honor to be known as your father for the past year and a half." Pete said. "We'll all miss you a lot, especially at home. And, your mum and I will make sure that Emily knows all about you, and just how wonderful of a person you are."

"Thanks, Pete." Rose said softly. "I'll miss everyone, too."

Pete nodded in understanding.

"Now," He continued, holding up an envelope, "I've received your official letter of resignation, Ms. Tyler, and I just wanted you to know that you're one of the best employees I've ever had."

Rose's eyes lit up as she smiled. "And I bet I'm your only employee who's ever known so much about aliens."

"That too." Pete agreed. "Now, then, we had better get moving. I don't want you to miss your flight."

"I'll be fine." Rose insisted. "Romana said she would wait for me."

So, with a smile on both of their faces, Rose and Pete got out of the car and walked in to the Torchwood building together. They rode in the elevator together up to the top floor, where Pete gave Rose one last hug before going to his office. Rose was about to go up to the roof, where Romana was waiting, when she remembered something she had left in her desk.

Rose made a quick detour to what was now her former office, pulled open the top left drawer, grabbed a few pictures out of it and stuffed them into her pack with the rest of the things she was taking with her. She then walked back out of her office and to the stairwell. Once she was inside of it, however, Rose stopped for a moment, allowing herself a moment's rest, and a moment to be surprised that no one had stopped her in the hall.

Then, taking a deep breath, Rose stood up straight, and climbed the stairs that lead towards the roof. Once she got up there, she continued on her course towards the red telephone booth that she knew to be a TARDIS. She only stopped to knock on the door, since she didn't have a key.

"It's open." A voice called out from within.

Taking another deep breath, Rose opened the door and stepped into the time machine.

* * *

"I've been thinking about something." The Doctor told Martha, once they had left Jack and the Torchwood building. 

"Nothing unusual there." Martha muttered.

"No, really." The Doctor insisted. "It's been nice seeing Jack, and all, but Earth really isn't looking very exciting right now. So, once the Tardis is all charged up, I'm going to be heading out." He paused here for a moment. "Just so you know."

Martha nodded.

"Well, it turns out you aren't the only one who's been thinking." She replied. "Although you seem to be under the impression that the rift activity was nothing, I really want to follow through with it. See where it leads, you know?"

"Jack offered you a job."

"…Maybe." Martha replied slowly.

"You can leave whenever you want." The Doctor told her. "I'm not stopping you."

"I'll miss you." Martha said, looking at him point-blank.

"'Course you will." He responded, not meeting her gaze. "Everyone misses me."

Martha heaved a great sigh at this.

"Once I leave, you'll remember to come visit us, though, won't you?" She asked.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm not as forgetful as you people always make me out to be, you know."

"Sure you aren't." Martha said with a laugh.

By now, they had reached the Tardis. Here, they stopped.

"Do me a favor?" Martha said.

"What?"

"Just try not to get yourself into any situations that you won't be able to get out of on your own, Doctor." Martha requested. "You aren't going to have any back-up this time."

"I think I fancy some time off, anyway." The Doctor replied. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Martha rose her eyebrows, a skeptical smile on her face. "Knowing you…anything."

* * *

"It's so different." Rose said in awe as she stepped further into Romana's Tardis. 

"Really?" Romana asked curiously, looking up from the console. "I modeled it after the Doctor's."

"Than his has changed a lot." Rose stated. "This looks nothing like the Tardis I knew." She paused, looking thoughtfully at the white walls. "Although, Sarah Jane did mention something about the Tardis looking different. Maybe this is what it looked like in her time."

"Sarah Jane." Romana repeated the name thoughtfully. "Where do I know that name?"

"Sarah Jane Smith." K-9 said, appearing from underneath the console. "One of Master Doctor's many travelling companions."

Romana shrugged. "That'll be it then. He must have mentioned her a few times."

Rose snorted at this. "Sure, he mentions her to _you_." A grin spread across her face now. "You know, when we ran into Sarah Jane after all those years since he last saw her, he tried to convince me that he'd told me about her."

"That's the Doctor for you." Romana said. "Always forgetting everything."

Rose grinned, then looked at the console. "So, when are we leaving?"

"Coordinates for our arrival must be finalized, Mistress." K-9 informed Romana.

"Oh, I've got a query about that." Rose said quickly.

"Yes?"

"Well, when the Doctor tried to say good-bye to me, he said he was orbiting a Super-Nova to get enough energy. And he was only able to project an image into this universe." Rose said, looking a bit concerned.

"Hmm." Romana said thoughtfully. She was silent for a moment before speaking again. "And I suppose he sealed all the cracks between the two universe's as well?"

Rose nodded, and Romana's brow knit in concentration.

"Are there any time you were with the Doctor, that you can remember massive amounts of energy being produced, and having no real place to go?" Romana questioned.

"There is one." Rose said slowly. Romana nodded eagerly. "In the year 5 Billion, the sun expands, and the planet Earth is destroyed." Rose smiled reminiscently. "That was the first place he ever took me. Earth-the year 5 billion."

Romana gave a small laugh. "When we were searching for the key to time, the first place we went was a planet that was in a period similar to Earth's Middle Ages. And after the key to time was gone, we ended up on Scarro. The Daleks-"

Romana stopped suddenly, unable to finish her sentence.

"Anyway, that sounds perfect." She finished hurriedly.

"But the Doctor said it would make both universe's collapse if anyone was to travel between the universe's ever again." Rose said worriedly.

"Well, we have two things the Doctor doesn't." Romana stated, a grin spreading across her face. "The function of this Tardis was essentially to travel across different universe's."

Romana patted the console fondly at this.

"And the other thing?" Rose prompted.

"The Doctor doesn't have a genius-robot-dog with him." Romana said smugly. "He gave K-9 to _me_."

K-9 gave a metallic-sounding bark.

"So," Romana began, "Now that we have the coordinates, what are we waiting for? Earth, year 5 billion, here we come." She glanced at Rose. "Oh, and if I were you, I'd hold on tight."

Romana had K-9 input the coordinates into the console, and with a deep breath, she pulled a lever down. The Tardis gave a sudden lurch, and then Rose felt as if the Tardis was rolling; it shook her back and forth so much. The rattling continued for a few minutes, and then it suddenly stopped.

Romana immediately unattached herself from the console and checked the screen to see their coordinates.

"We made it." She announced.

"Mistress," said K-9, sounding urgent.

"Yes?"

"It is advisable to bring the Tardis to another point in time. One where Master Doctor is not present." K-9 said.

Rose nodded her agreeance. "I've crossed my own timeline before. And trust me, it isn't pretty."

"Alright then." Romana said, looking back down at the console. "How do you fancy going to see what your time is like?"

Rose shrugged. "I'm supposed to be dead there."

"Excellent." Romana said a grin. "Earth, 21st century it is then."

**a/n-I meant to update this sooner, but i sort of forgot, so yeah, sorry about that. anyways, all input is welcome.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Romana breathed in deeply as she stood in Cardiff's center.

"You know," She said thoughtfully, "I always used to think the Doctor was crazy for liking Earth so much. But now that I really think about it, this really is a wonderful little planet."

Rose just smiled, too busy absorbing the familiar sights of her true home around her to reply.

"I think K-9 is upset with me." Romana continued after a moment.

"Why?" Rose asked now, curious. In the short time that she had known Romana, she had gotten the impression that the tin dog was in fact extremely loyal and devoted to his mistress.

"He doesn't like staying behind in the Tardis." Romana replied. Then she rolled her eyes, "Although it's not as if there's no one to talk to. That dog is just spoiled rotten."

Rose grinned again. "Kind of reminds me of Emily. She's only one and mum and Pete have already given her everything anyone could ever want." She sighed here, a longing expression apparent on her face. "It hasn't been that long, and I already miss them." She turned to Romana now. "Was it like that for you, when you first left your home to travel with the Doctor?"

Romana frowned slightly at this question.

"Not exactly." She said slowly.

"It's just complicated." She hurried to clarify as Rose looked at her, utter disbelief written across the other girl's face. "On Gallifrey, families are just structured differently. And when I left, I had every intention of coming back as soon as the key was found." Now it was Romana's turn to sigh. "I liked life on Gallifrey, and at first I was rather upset about having to leave, I suppose. But as time passed, I grew accustomed to the Doctor's way of life. I told you before that we were supposed to be returning to Gallifrey when we got stranded in E-Space." She chuckled slightly here. "That was probably one of the best days of my life; I didn't want to go back home. The other Time Lords wanted me back, but now that I'd seen a better life, I didn't want to live my life they wanted me to…"

Romana trailed off there, staring unseeingly at her surroundings.

"I suppose there's another good reason for staying in E-Space." She said thoughtfully, and still with a faraway look in her eyes. "I'm still alive now because of it." She turned to Rose now. "You'll get used to not having them around, eventually. After all, you have traveled with the Doctor before. And maybe, one day, it will be possible to travel between the universes again. You never know, having more time lords around might help in more ways than one."

"Excuse me," A voice interrupted suddenly from behind them.

Romana and Rose both spun around at the sound of the voice to see a woman before them dressed almost entirely in black. Looking over her shoulder, they could see two others dressed almost exactly like her.

"Can I help you?" Romana asked pleasantly, but still cautiously.

"I'm going to have to ask the two of you to come with me." The woman told her.

"May I ask why?" Romana said, still sounding very civilized.

"We just want to ask you a few questions." The woman replied easily. "So if you'd just follow me-"

"No." Rose said suddenly, her eyes going wide with recognition as she spotted the name emblazoned on the side of a black SUV a few yards beyond the woman before her. "I'm not going anywhere with you people."

As one, Romana and the woman both looked at her in surprise.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice." The woman said. "Either you can come in peacefully, of your own accord…or you can be taken in by force."

"On what grounds?" Rose challenged. "We haven't done anything wrong."

"That's still to be determined." The woman said.

"By whom?" Romana asked now.

"Well, by Torchwood, of course."

Rose's eyes hardened at the sound of the name of the sole thing responsible for trapping her in another universe spoken aloud.

"We haven't done anything wrong." Rose said again, looking directly at the woman before her. "If you want to arrest someone, then arrest everyone at Torchwood. They're the ones who are doing something wrong."

The woman's expression didn't change. It was almost as if she was used to the idea of people not liking Torchwood. Although as Rose remembered it, Torchwood had been a secret institute, hidden from the world for more than a century. Maybe things in this universe had changed more in the past few years than either she or Romana could have known. The people could have found out about Torchwood, like they had in Pete's universe, which really wouldn't have surprised Rose, anyway.

"It's been two years since the Daleks and Cybermen invaded through Torchwood, hasn't it?" Romana asked the woman suddenly.

Now, for the first time since he had arrived, the woman's expression changed.

"What do you know about that?" She asked Romana suspiciously.

"I know that the Doctor was the one who sent them all back into the void, and saved all of you." Rose replied. The woman's head turned to face in her direction.

"You know the Doctor?" She questioned her eyes wide.

"We do." Romana said shortly. "What about it?"

"Our Leader will want to speak with you." The woman said swiftly, taking both of their arms as she spoke.

Rose began to struggle against her grip, but Romana shot her a look and Rose became still immediately, surprised by the expression on Romana's face. The woman took advantage of this and led Rose and Romana to her car. Once they were inside and the door was closed, Rose turned to Romana.

"What'd you do that for?" She hissed, not wanting to be overheard although there wasn't anyone else in the car with them yet. "I've told you what Torchwood is like. It was their fault the Cybermen and Daleks got back into this universe."

"Give me your hand." Was all Romana said.

"Why?"

"Just give it to me." Romana said, holding her own hand out impatiently.

With a look of uncertainty upon her face, Rose slowly placed her hand on top of Romana's waiting one. As soon as Rose's hand was touching hers though, Romana's eyes closed, and an expression of utter concentration appeared on her face.

Suddenly, Rose felt another presence in her mind, and as she felt that, all of her memories of Torchwood came floating to the surface of her mind. The many images flashed before her eyes quickly, until coming to a stop at the very first time she had ever been in Torchwood Tower; the only time she had ever been there…when the Cybermen had crossed universes and the Daleks had reappeared.

"They aren't the same." Romana said softly, her eyes still shut.

"Who isn't?" Rose asked.

"This leader of theirs." Romana said, her eyes opening slowly. "You remember a woman, but her mind," She jerked her head in the direction of the woman who had 'arrested' them, "Shows the head of Torchwood as a man. And he doesn't look like anyone you ever met or even saw when you were at Torchwood with the Doctor."

"Yvonne, the old director, was upgraded." Rose replied. "The Cybermen made her one of them. Torchwood will have gotten a new head by now."

Romana nodded. "I figured." She paused. "That's why we're going to let them take us to Torchwood headquarters. I want to meet this new director and see if they've changed their…mission."

Before Romana could say anything else, however, the car door opened and the woman from before sat down in the driver's seat and started the car.

"Sorry for the wait." She said, without looking back at Rose and Romana as she started to drive away. The two people who had been with her were walking in the opposite direction. "We should reach Torchwood in a few minutes. We're going to the front entrance."

Ten minutes later, Rose, Romana, and the woman from Torchwood were standing within a small shop, which appeared to be totally devoid of life. Just as Rose had come to this conclusion on her own, however, a man stepped out from what was most likely a back room. He was very primly dressed in a neat suit.

"I see you've brought visitors back with you." The man said, reaching down to the desk in front of him, which separated him from the three women. "I thought you three were only going out for coffee?"

The woman shrugged. "Just couldn't help myself."

Nothing more was said, however, because just then the wall to their right slid open. Romana whistled softly in appreciation.

"Come on, this way." The woman said, ushering them through the doorway with one last wave to the man. "Oh, and I'm Gwen, by the way. I don't think I've properly introduced myself."

Neither Romana nor Rose said anything.

Gwen led the two of them into the passageway that was beyond the door. It was as they began the trek to what Romana and Rose could only assume was Torchwood's headquarters that Romana finally decided to speak up.

"Are you going to tell us why we were brought here?" She asked.

"Do you have any idea where you were standing?" Gwen replied by way of an answer.

"On the ground?" Rose said. "But last time I checked, there weren't any laws against that."

"You were standing in the exact center of Cardiff."

Rose's eyes went wide. "The Rift…" She said softly.

Gwen nodded, though her eyes looked slightly suspicious again.

"Our main job here at Torchwood is to keep an eye on that Rift. We got some unusual readings off of it, and when we got there, the two of you were standing there. The Captain will just want to ask you a few questions about that, especially since you say you know that Doctor fellow."

"Who's the Captain?" Romana asked as they finally reached another door.

The door opened, and Gwen gestured for Rose and Romana to step through this one as well.

"Our leader." She said. "You'll meet him shortly."

Gwen led them down a few steps and through what looked quite like a gate to Rose.

"Welcome to Torchwood Three; this is the Hub." She said, holding her arm out to open space around them.

Looking around, Rose spotted the man and woman from before, both sitting at what appeared to be their separate work stations. At first Rose wondered how the two had gotten here first, but then she remembered Gwen saying they were going to the front entrance. The other man and woman must have used the 'back' entrance.

"This way," Gwen said, again taking the lead as they walked across the Hub. She nodded at what looked like a glass-encased room above them. "That's the Captain's office."

She walked up the stairs leading to the second level, Rose and Romana following closely behind. Although neither of them thought they'd done anything worthy of being arrested, they couldn't help but be intrigued by this Torchwood. Rose hadn't even known there was more than one Torchwood on this earth, although she probably could have figured it out, since she knew of the existence of others on Pete's world. This one was different from the rest, though. For instance, it seemed less military-minded, plus they hadn't seen more than four people yet, including Gwen and not counting this Captain she had spoken of.

Gwen suddenly stopped, and Rose noticed that they had reached the Captain's office. Gwen lifted her hand and was about to knock, when the door opened and another woman stepped out.

"Oh, hello Gwen." The woman said pleasantly, glancing curiously at Rose and Romana. "Who've you got there?"

"Hello Martha." Gwen replied. "Just some people to see the Captain…about the Rift activity we called in. Is he available?"

Martha nodded. "I was just talking to him. In fact, I'll come back with you, if they're here about the Rift."

Martha opened the office door again and led the way back inside.

"Hey, Jack, Gwen has some visitors for you." Martha said, speaking to the man sitting at the desk before them. He was turned away from them, so they couldn't see his face.

"Jack…" Rose repeated softly. "Captain Jack…"

The man in the chair spun around, his eyes wide with surprise.

"Rose?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"Rose." Jack said again, a grin spreading across his face. "Rose Tyler, is that really you?"

An identical grin appeared on Rose's face. "It is me. But what about you—I thought you were dead?"

"I was." Jack replied with a wave of his hand. "But not anymore, and not ever again."

"So, I take it you two know each other?" Romana cut in, looking from Rose to Jack and back again.

Rose nodded. "The Doctor and I met Jack in London, during World War II, and then he traveled with us for a bit. I thought the Daleks had killed him, when we found them again about two-hundred thousand years from now."

"Wait a minute…" Martha said slowly, looking at Rose, her eyes wide with what could only be described as shock. "Did you say your name was Rose?"

"Yeah…" Rose said slowly with a small nod. "Why?"

"And you used to travel with the Doctor?" Martha continued

Again, Rose nodded. "Do you know him, too?"

"I traveled with him for a bit." Martha replied. "But a few days ago, when we came back to visit Jack, I decided to stay and help monitor the Rift; they were getting some strange readings from it, here."

"Would you mind if I took a look at those readings?" Romana suddenly asked, speaking up now that her curiosity had finally peaked.

"Er…sure." Jack said slowly, looking at Romana strangely, as they hadn't been introduced yet.

He turned to the computer on his desk and typed a few things on the keyboard. After a moment, he stood up, and gestured for Romana to take his seat. She sat down, and her gaze locked on to the screen. She was silent for a moment, studying the readings, before she looked back up at Jack.

"Have you ever had readings like this before?" She questioned.

He shook his head. "Not really, except for when Martha and the Doctor landed the Tardis on top of the Rift when they landed here, but those were much more powerful. And then there was about an hour ago, too. We got the exact same readings as we did when the Tardis landed a few days ago. But even though those two sets of readings were the same, they were different from the first initial readings, which we got before the Tardis landed.

"Can I see all of those, too?" Romana asked.

Jack nodded and obligingly pulled the additional readings up so that they were all side-by-side on the computer screen. Romana leaned in closely, and after only a moment of silent observation, her eyes went wide.

"Unbelievable…" She said softly.

"What?" Jack asked quickly.

"There." Rose pointed at the readings that showed less rift activity than the others did; it was the original reading. "That was me, going from E-Space back to N-Space. That must be one powerful rift, if it picked up that energy reading. And there," She pointed to another set of readings, "That's from when the Doctor landed. And those," She indicated the final readout, "Those are from when Rose and I landed, today."

Jack looked at her suspiciously.

"What are you talking about?" He asked. "What do you mean, when you landed? And while we're at it, who are you?"

"This is Romana, Jack." Rose said swiftly. "She's a Time Lord, like the Doctor."

Jack looked at Romana, his eyes wide.

"I thought all of the other Time Lords were dead." Martha interjected. "Even the Master is gone now."

"The Master?" Romana repeated. "You mean he survived the war, too?"

Martha nodded slowly. "When Jack found the Doctor and I, we met the Master. But he wasn't a Time Lord anymore; he was human."

Romana nodded thoughtfully. "He would do anything to survive."

"Who's the Master?" Rose asked, looking confused.

"He's an old…friend of the Doctor's." Jack told her. "He ran away and gave up being a Time Lord to save himself. He ran away to the end of the universe…"

"Did he stay there?" Romana asked almost immediately. "How did you even know it was the Master? If he was human, he wouldn't remember anything about being a Time Lord."

"He opened the fob watch." Martha said softly. "And then he remembered everything. Then he stole the Tardis and came back here, and everything got out of control for a while." Martha gave a slight shake of her head. "But all that's over with now; the Master is gone."

"Gone." Romana repeated in a whisper and her gaze became unfocused. After a moment, she shook her head as if to clear it, and then looked back at Martha. "You said you and the Doctor arrived here not too long ago…And you stayed behind to help monitor the rift." She frowned slightly. "I don't suppose he told you were he was going?"

Martha shook her head. "He said he needed some time off from all the trouble he seems to find everywhere. He was under the impression nothing could possibly go wrong with that plan."

Rose gave a short laugh. "That'll be the day. The Doctor, not find trouble? I'd like to see that."

Jack nodded his agreeance.

"Doesn't he know that whenever someone says that nothing bad could possibly happen, it usually does?"

* * *

Ever since he had left Gallifrey, all those hundreds of years ago, the Doctor had noticed a continuous pattern in the people who traveled with him. At one point or another, they all left him. Some wanted to get away, and some had no choice. But the fact still remained, they all left. And with the one exception of Sarah Jane, he never saw them again.

The Doctor heaved a great sigh as he shut the door of the Tardis and just stood there, looking at the console. In the short time Martha had been with him, he had grown attached to her. She was always there, ready to help. And, although he knew she tried to hide it, always thinking about the woman she had 'replaced' in some ways.

The truth was, Martha wasn't Rose's replacement. As the thought of Rose came unbidden to his mind, memories of his past seemed to float to the surface. Once, what seemed like a lifetime ago now, he had put forth his best effort to get people to not travel with him. But the war had changed him in so many ways…

When he first met Rose, he had been a bit hesitant about asking her to come with him, and although it had taken some time to get used to be around another person for extended periods of time, he had warmed up to Rose eventually. Having someone else around had helped him to open up about the war, and he had found that he had missed the company of a travelling companion.

As time passed, he had seen how well Rose fit in with life in the Tardis. In fact, she had somewhat reminded him of someone else who had traveled with him once, long ago. Romana had been fresh out of the Academy when she had been sent by the White Guardian to help him find the Key to Time, and quite anxious to get back to life on Gallifrey. But in the end, after the key was found, and then lost again, Romana had stayed…for a while. Then she, too, had left, off to help the Tharils in E-Space.

A thoughtful expression crossed over the Doctor's face as he remembered this. He wondered if she had heard the telepathic distress call the Time Lords on Gallifrey had sent out. With a small chuckle he wondered if she had answered the call, and if she had even gotten it. As he remembered it, Romana had been quite pleased to be stuck in E-Space, where the other Time Lords couldn't come after her.

He shook his head now to clear it. It did no good to dwell on that past, where all of the other Time Lords had been alive. With the death of the Master, they really were all gone.

Yes, sooner or later, everyone left the Doctor. Whether it was travelling companions or fellow Time Lords, they all left in the end, never to return…


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

It was late afternoon and Rose was sitting in Jack's office, across the desk from him. After their reunion that morning, Jack had given Rose and Romana a tour of Torchwood. Then Romana had gone to get K-9 from her Tardis and familiarize the two of them with the running of the place. So Rose and Jack had retreated to his office to catch up on things, starting with their initial separation in the year 200,100, and Jack had just finished telling Rose about the year that never was.

"How long ago was that?" Rose asked now.

Jack shrugged. "About six months ago. Things haven't gotten as bad as that again, but you know Earth. It's the planet that never sleeps."

Rose grinned, before a look of seriousness came over her face. "Does…Does the Doctor stop by often?"

"Not to visit me." Jack replied casually. "But Martha made him promise to come here more often now that he's on his own again. So, I'm sure we'll see him soon enough."

Before Rose could say anything else, however, Romana had appeared at the door.

"I've been thinking," She began without further preamble, "If the Doctor and I are really the only two Time Lords left in existence, then I really should try to find him. Who knows when he'll come back here again?"

"Jack was just saying that Martha made the Doctor promise to visit more often." Rose told her. "Maybe he'll be here sooner than you think."

"And," Jack added, "I've got my handy Doctor detector, so we'll know the moment the Tardis materializes on Earth. He was going to take it away from me, but Martha wouldn't let him."

Romana was silent for a moment. Then, slowly as if she were still thinking about it, "Well, if that's the case, then I guess I could stay here. It would probably be easier than trying to chase him through time and space, anyway. And I'm sure there's something helpful I could do, here at Torchwood."

"Excellent." Jack said, standing up. "And if you're going to be staying, I have just the job for you." He turned to Rose, "I suppose you'll be staying too, then?"

"I've got nowhere else to go." Rose said with a shrug. "I'm dead, officially-remember?"

Jack grinned. "How could I forget?"

* * *

"I never knew Planet Earth was so…busy." Romana said to Rose one day when they'd been at Torchwood for about a month. She collapsed into a chair across from the one Rose was sitting in, working on a computer at her new desk. Jack had cleared space in the Hub for both of them, so now they each had their own space to work there. "Everything that's been going on here—I don't think the Doctor ever described it like this."

Rose didn't answer, staring unseeingly at the computer screen before her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Rose." Romana said, in a softer voice now. "I wasn't thinking. Forget I mentioned him."

Rose shook her head. "No. It's all right. I shouldn't get so worked up about it. But…you know, I guess I just figured that when we got here, the Doctor would be here too—waiting."

Romana gave her a small smile. "That's the Doctor for you. He keeps everyone waiting on him; Jack was the one who told you—he waited more than a century for the Doctor to come to earth again. And then when he finally did, the Doctor tried to run away from him."

"Again." Rose added and Romana laughed.

"It's okay to miss him, though." She said, suddenly looking at Rose with a serious expression on her face. "I do, all the time…and so does K-9." She glanced down at the robot dog beside her; he trailed her every move and was hardly ever seen not at her side. "Don't you boy?"

"Affirmative, mistress." K-9 replied in his electronic voice.

Rose gave a small grin, then she was silent for a moment; thoughtful.

"Do you think he'll ever come back?" She asked Romana in a soft voice.

"Of course he will." Romana said with a casual wave of her hand. "He's got some strange sort of fascination with Planet Earth, the Doctor does. I've never pretended to understand it." She paused now, it was her turn to look thoughtfully at Rose. "Did you know that when he was on the run from the Time Lords-way back, before he'd ever regenerated-he hid out on Earth? He was quite a young man, back then…"

"The Doctor was on the run from the Time Lords?" Rose said. "He never told me that bit."

"Of course he didn't." Romana replied with a slight smirk. "But yeah, he parked the Tardis in a junkyard in London and that's where he lived—him and his granddaughter."

"His granddaughter." Rose repeated, her eyes wide. "He had a granddaughter?"

Romana nodded. "I guess I'm not surprised he didn't tell you that bit, though. I never knew much about Susan—that was her name. But I do know that he left her behind somewhere. He really loved her and she loved him…but he wanted her to be happy."

Rose was quiet, pondering this, when, suddenly, she started laughing.

"He tried that on me before." She told Romana once she had gotten her laughter under control. "Back when we found the Daleks and their Emperor. There were too many of them to defeat, so he tricked me into the Tardis and sent me back to mum and Mickey." She paused, a faraway look in her eyes. "But I couldn't just let him die two-hundred thousand years in the future."

"What did you do?" Romana asked, curious. "He must have locked the Tardis controls; he would have made sure you wouldn't remember how to work them."

Rose nodded. "He did." She gave a small laugh, her eyes still seeing the memory as if it were yesterday. "But I was determined to get back to him. I…I absorbed the Time Vortex, took myself and the Tardis back to him." Her eyes refocused then. "That's when I brought Jack back to life, I suppose…according to him. I can't really remember that much of it." She frowned slightly here. "Of course, that's also when the Doctor went and regenerated on me—without warning me about it beforehand, of course."

"Has…" Romana began, but stopped, unsure as to how to continue with her question. "I don't suppose you'd happen to know how often he's regenerated since I would have seen him last, do you?"

Rose bit her lip. "I'm not sure, but a bit after the Doctor regenerated, we were making a stop over on earth and we found Sarah Jane Smith here. I think he said he'd regenerated half a dozen times since they'd last seen each other."

Romana was silent again, thinking.

"That's how many times he's regenerated since I've seen him, too, then." She finally said. "And to think…I haven't even been gone from him long enough to have regenerated even once…"

"Really?" Rose said, shocked. "Just how long were you in…E-Space-wasn't it?"

Romana nodded. "I'm not really sure, to tell you the truth. I think—well it's obvious now, but time moved differently there. I'd just gotten there, and all of a sudden I was getting the telepathic distress call from Gallifrey. By the time my Tardis was fully functional, a bit of time had passed, but obviously it was enough time for the Time Lords to fight a war…and lose."

"You didn't really lose." Rose offered. "There's you and the Doctor still, and there aren't any more Daleks left; they've all been destroyed."

"There's still one out there." A voice said suddenly from behind them.

Both women turned around in surprise to see Martha standing there.

"Sorry." She said, stepping up so that she was standing closer to the two of them. "I was just passing by, and I couldn't help overhearing."

"That's alright." Rose said with a shrug. "But what do you mean, there's still one left? They're all gone. The Doctor sent them all back into the Void, at the Battle of Canary Wharf."

"No one told you?" Martha questioned, looking a bit surprised. "The Cult of Skaro survived. They used an emergency temporal shift right before they were sucked in to the void, apparently. The four of them ended up in New York City, back in the thirties. The Doctor and I met up with them there, and to make a long story short, only one of them made it out alive. But we don't know where he is now. Or when."

Rose shrugged again, turning back to Romana as she did so. "Well, even if there is one left, you and the Doctor outnumber him. So, technically, you two are winning…although, the Time War ended in the year 200,100."

Romana nodded and gave a small smile, and then turned to face Martha again. "We were talking before and…I don't suppose the Doctor told you when he was going to come back here again, did he?"

But Martha was shaking her head no before Romana had finished asking her question.

"He didn't say. But I did make him promise to stop by more often, I know Jack told you that much." She paused here, a grin spreading across her face suddenly, as if she'd only just remembered something. "Although…I did give him my mobile. I told him that if I ever called him, it meant he had to come back right away." Martha practically across the remaining space between herself and the other two women, towards the phone sitting on the desk before Rose.

"Why didn't I remember this before?" She asked no one in particular as she frantically punched the number in on the phone now in her hand.

Martha held the phone up to her ear, her foot tapping impatiently as the other end continued to ring. Rose, having already abandoned her work, just stared unblinkingly at Martha, trying very hard not to get her hopes up.

"I told him to answer it." She muttered darkly as the phone switched to the voicemail, which he hadn't bothered to change. It was still her own voice requesting a message.

"Hello Doctor, I hope you get this message." Martha began, trying to keep her voice level as she spoke. "This is Martha, in case you hadn't figured it out by now. I suppose you're lucky this isn't an emergency, and the Earth isn't in dire need of your help, since you are not answering the phone right now. But what I wanted to tell you is still very important." She paused slightly here. "There are two people, here at Torchwood, who are very…anxious to see you. They've been waiting for you to come back for a while now, and I'm pretty sure that you are about to make yourself two new enemies if you don't get back here soon." She paused again. "I really hope you get this message soon." She repeated. "Bye."

Martha hung up the phone, looking dejected. "I tried."

"It's alright." Rose told her, trying not to let the disappointment leak into her voice. "I suppose it was a long shot anyway."

"If you don't mind, I'm gonna kill him if he ever shows his face here again." Martha informed Rose and Romana.

"Go right ahead." Romana replied. "Although you really don't seem like the violent type, Martha Jones."

"I can always try something new." Was the reply.

* * *

The Doctor gasped for breath as he leaned against the inside of the Tardis doors. Perhaps it had been a mistake to come to Elizabethan England. Of course, on the bright side, now he knew what he'd done that had offended Queen Elizabeth I so much…

A beeping noise coming from somewhere on the console interrupted his thoughts here, though. Walking over casually, he spotted the mobile Martha had forced upon him before their parting. With an exaggerated sigh, he picked it up.

One New Voicemail. The screen read. Recognizing the number as belonging to Torchwood, the Doctor gave a small shrug and flipped the phone open to listen to the message. A moment later, he closed the phone again and slipped it absentmindedly into his pants' pocket.

So, there were two people at Torchwood who wanted to see him? They must have been pretty important if Martha had put the effort into calling him to come home. But still…

The Doctor nodded resolutely. He supposed it was time for him to drop by Torchwood again, and if he was going to be there, why not see these two mystery people who would hate him for not coming to see them?

The Doctor nodded to himself again, already busily inputting Cardiff's coordinates in to the computer.

Next stop, Torchwood.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"Romana, I have a question for you." Martha said in a very serious tone, about a week after she had first called the Doctor on the mobile she had given him.

Romana looked up from the report she had been compiling for Jack.

"What do you need?" She asked, giving Martha a friendly smile.

"How do you kill a Time Lord?" Martha asked, still serious. "Because I've recently become involved in a situation which calls for the immediate death of one I happen to be acquainted with. I need to know how to get past that whole regenerating thing you people do."

Romana laughed. "He'll show up soon, mark my words. Just because the Doctor has a Time Machine doesn't mean he's on time for things. Don't worry about it."

Martha sat down in front of the desk, across from Romana, with a sigh at this point. "It's not me I'm worried about—it's Rose."

A look of understanding came onto Romana's face now.

"She said she was going to get worked up about it…and I know she's trying not to show it," Romana said slowly, "But she really wants the Doctor to come back. We've talked about what happened, and I know she was determined to stay with him before she got trapped in that parallel universe."

Martha was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"I know it's not exactly my place to ask," She began slowly, "But what happened, how did they get separated? All I know is that it had something to do with the Battle of Canary Wharf and Rose ended up on a parallel Earth, but I don't know how it happened."

"You know about the Daleks and the Cybermen, don't you?" Romana asked, and Martha nodded. "Well, the only way to get rid of them-to destroy them-was to trap them in the void—the gap between all of the parallel universes. Anything that had been in or through the void would be pulled into it when the Doctor opened it to trap the Daleks and Cybermen. The only flaw in his plan was that he and Rose had been through the void and would be pulled in also. He wanted to save her, so he sent her and her mum back to the parallel Earth they'd gone to before, with her dad from that universe."

"But she came back." Martha said softly.

Romana nodded. "As much as she loved her mum, she wanted to stay with the Doctor, so she came back to be with him."

"But I still don't understand." Marta interrupted. "If they had both been through the void, how come nothing happened to the Doctor? He didn't get trapped anywhere—well, besides here, I guess."

"They were holding on to these clamps that they'd attached to the wall." Romana explained. "And Rose slipped. Right before she was about to fall into the void and be lost forever, her parallel dad appeared and brought her to the parallel Earth, where she wasn't in danger of falling into the void. But shortly after that, the void closed for good, and she became trapped there forever. There was no way the Doctor could get through to that universe. It's a miracle my Tardis landed in that universe, even."

"That's terrible…" Martha said so softly it was practically a whisper and Romana nodded her agreeance. "Of course, that just makes me want to kill the Doctor even more, because he's keeping her waiting so long."

"If he knew, he would be here faster than you could blink." Romana said. "He'd probably even break the rules and make the Tardis go back to before you called him, to try and make up for the lost time."

Romana was interrupted, however, by a sudden exclamation of frustration from the other side of the Hub. She looked around Martha to see Jack standing there, holding the strangest-looking contraption she had ever seen in his arms.

"I need a second opinion." Jack announced, walking towards the two of them. "I think this is broken."

"What exactly is that?" Romana questioned, taking in the metal jar, which was holding what looked like a human hand, suspended in some type of liquid.

"It's my Doctor-Detector." Jack replied. "And I think it's broken."

"Why?" Martha asked. "What's wrong with it?"

"That's just the thing," Jack said, setting the jar on Romana's desk, "I don't know."

"It doesn't look like there is anything wrong with it." Romana said after quickly looking over the jar. "Is it giving you false readings, or something like that?"

"It's not giving me any readings!" Jack said, a note of despair apparent in his voice. "It's supposed to alert me when the Doctor is on Earth—but it hasn't yet."

"We were just talking about that." Romana said, nodding at Martha. "The Doctor isn't here yet, but none of you can give up hope that he won't show up one of these days. You have to keep some faith in him. I've known the Doctor for years, and he tends to show up when you least expect it."

"Like right now?" Rose's voice asked from the entrance to the Hub. She had walked up just in time to hear Romana's last sentence. "Everyone quiet…do you hear that?"

At her words, the occupants of the office immediately fell silent…just in time to hear the familiar whirring sounds of the Tardis' engines somewhere close by, and just before the machine on Romana's desk starting beeping and making other noises.

"It's working!" Jack exclaimed, a huge smile apparent on his face. "That's the Doctor. He's finally here!"

Less than a second later, Jack had wrapped his arms around his Doctor-Detector, and was running frantically out of the Hub, Rose just behind him.

"You go ahead." Romana told Martha, nodding her head in the direction Jack and Rose had run off in. "I'll catch up. The Doctor is an old man now; I don't want to give him too many surprises at once."

Martha just shook her head, before running to catch up to Jack and Rose.

Meanwhile, the two of them had been running in the direction of the basement. Once they got there, however, Rose slowed down, while Jack kept running. She had been waiting to see the Doctor again for over a year and a half, but now she was suddenly nervous. What if the Doctor had found someone else to travel with, again? Martha hadn't stayed with him, but maybe he had picked someone else up along the way…

* * *

The Doctor frowned slightly, looking worried as he gazed at the console in his Tardis. According to the date on it, it had been a week since Martha had called him and told him to come back to Earth. She wasn't going to be happy with him. But she had said it wasn't an emergency, so maybe she wouldn't be too mad…

With a shrug, he grabbed his coat from where he'd last dropped it and put it on. With one last glance at the date, he walked over to the door and opened it. He was met almost immediately by a familiar face.

"Doctor," Jack said, his tone a bit sharp, but not altogether unpleasant, "You're late."

The Doctor winced. "I don't suppose there's a chance Martha isn't mad at me?"

"Martha…" Jack said slowly. "She isn't as mad as…others."

"Oh," the Doctor said, realization dawning, "That's right, she said you had people here who wanted to talk to me." He paused. "Who was it that wanted to talk to me? Martha didn't say."

"It's—" Jack turned around, but when he did there was no one there, he turned back to face the Doctor with a frown on his face. "She was right behind me, I don't know where she went."

"Who?" The Doctor asked.

"Me." A familiar voice said softly from behind Jack.

Jack turned around again, and the Doctor looked to where he'd heard the voice coming from, to see the one person he thought he'd never see again stepping into the room.

"Rose." The Doctor said softly, a grin beginning to spread across his face.

"Doctor." She replied. And then she was running again, running to meet the Doctor halfway across the room, arms out-stretched. And as she felt his arms wrap around her, all of her worry evaporated. This was where she belonged. Here, safe in the Doctor's arms.

"How did you get here?" The Doctor asked. "It's supposed to be impossible to travel between universes, now."

"I had help from a new friend." Rose said slowly. "But it's a long story. There'll be plenty of time for that later, like…when she gets down here."

Suddenly, the Doctor pulled back. "I should have said this a long time ago…Rose Tyler, I love you."

That familiar grin he had missed so much appeared on Rose's face as the Doctor spoke. And then, finally, he was kissing her.

"I love you, too, Doctor." Rose said a moment later.

"Doctor!" A voice shouted from behind her.

The Doctor's head jerked up and, looking over Rose's head, he saw Martha standing there, looking slightly out of breath.

"Er…Hello, there, Martha." He said uneasily. "How've you been doing since I left?"

Martha's eyes narrowed. "How have I been doing?" She repeated. "How do you thing I've been 'doing'? You know, when I gave you my mobile, I expected you to use it; to have it with you at all times. You know, in case there was an emergency."

"But I'm here now, so it's all alright." The Doctor replied, trying to surreptitiously back farther away from her.

"I called you a week ago!" Martha exclaimed. "What if the people I was calling to tell you about were really holding us all hostage, or something? What if they were…I don't know…maybe survivors of the Time War?"

"But that wasn't the case, was it, Martha?" The Doctor asked calmly, his arms still wrapped around Rose possessively, as if he were afraid someone was going to try and snatch her away from him. "To the best of my knowledge, Rose wasn't holding you hostage, nor is she a survivor of the war."

"But she said 'people' Doctor." Jack pointed out. "Not just Rose. Martha called you to tell you about more than one person who was here looking for you."

"He does have a point though, Jack." A voice the Doctor couldn't quite place said from the shadows in the doorway behind Martha. "You really can't classify me as a 'survivor' of the Time War; I was never there."

The Doctor squinted his eyes, trying to focus on the person speaking. He knew that voice from somewhere. He knew he had heard it before. But where? Just as he was thinking this, there was movement in the shadows, and his eyes widened in surprise as someone who he thought he'd lost hundreds of years ago stepped into the room.

"Romana."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Once Martha had followed Rose and Jack at a sprint, Romana had followed behind her at a more leisurely pace.

True, she had been waiting to see the Doctor again ever since he had left E-space with Adric. And yes, she did want to question him about every detail of the Time War she knew he wouldn't want to talk about…ever. Of course Rose's impatient attitude at being kept waiting by him had kind of, sort of, maybe worn off on her. And she really wasn't going to deny that there was a small part of her that regretted ever leaving him in the first place…

But other than that, Romana knew she could wait a few minutes more to see the Doctor. She had already waited a few years to do that. Three more minutes wouldn't kill her. And she wanted Rose and the Doctor to have a proper reunion without thrusting another totally and unbelievably shocking surprise upon him.

So, it was just as Martha was saying, "…maybe survivors of the Time War?" that Romana reached the basement

"But that wasn't the case, was it, Martha?" Romana heard a calm voice reply. And she knew that, without a doubt, that was the Doctor. His voice may have changed, but it still sounded like him…somehow. "To the best of my knowledge, Rose wasn't holding you hostage, nor is she a survivor of the war."

Romana rolled her eyes at this. Some things would never change with the Doctor. No matter what he was saying or whom he was speaking to, he always made himself sound so…academic.

"But she said 'people' Doctor." Romana heard Jack point out. "Not just Rose. Martha called you to tell you about more than one person who was here looking for you."

It was now that Romana stepped up to the doorway of the room. She stood so that she could see the whole room, but so that she was still in the shadows.

"Give the Doctor some credit, Jack. He does have a point," Romana spoke up, "You really can't classify me as a 'survivor' of the Time War; I was never there."

At the sound of her voice, Romana, satisfied smirk upon her face, saw the Doctor jump just the tiniest bit in surprise. She saw him turn, his eyes squinting in her direction, trying to make her face out from the shadows she stood in. As he continued to search her out, she decided that it was now or never, and stepped into the room.

"Romana." Was the shocked whisper that came out of the Doctor's mouth, a surprised look on his face.

"Did you miss me?" Romana said with a smile now.

But the Doctor didn't smile back. Instead, a horrified look appeared on his face and he started to back away from her. She noticed his arms were wrapped around Rose as he dragged the blonde girl along after him.

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Romana asked, suddenly worried, as she took another step into the room. She really hadn't been expecting that reaction. Shock, yes. But horror…definitely not.

"You…" He said softly, his eyes wide, "…You died…you can't be here. It's impossible." He added in a voice that was so soft it was almost a whisper.

"It's not impossible." Romana said, slowly taking another step in the Doctor and Rose's direction. "Why would I be dead?"

"You all died…" The Doctor whispered now, his expression tortured. "I saw it…all of you…burning…"

"But I wasn't there." Romana told him, almost consolingly. "Don't you remember? You left me in E-Space. I didn't want to come home to Gallifrey, so I didn't. I was never there…" A sad look passed over her face. "I didn't know about the war until Rose told me a few weeks ago."

"It's true, Doctor." Rose said, speaking up as she somehow managed to turn around to face the Doctor, though his arms were still wrapped tightly around her. "She's telling the truth; she's been in E-Space the whole time; she was never a part of the Time War."

"You…weren't there." The Doctor said slowly and Romana nodded encouragingly. "You're real?"

"Of course I am." Romana said, as if it were obvious…which, you know, it was.

All of a sudden the Doctor's face lit up with incomprehensible joy. "You're real!" He exclaimed. "You really are real."

"Always." Romana replied with a broad grin, mirroring the Doctor's.

"And it's just like the Face of Boe said, Doctor." Martha said suddenly. "You aren't alone. The Master might be gone, but you aren't the last of the Time Lords anymore."

"The Face of Boe?" Rose cut in. "You've met the Face of Boe? You didn't tell me about that. Where'd you meet him?"

"You don't need to know that." The Doctor said swiftly, cutting Martha off as she opened her mouth to reply, suddenly distracted from his reunion with Romana, which had first distracted him from his reunion with Rose. "You really don't need to know that."

"It was on New Earth." Martha said, looking at the Doctor strangely as he shook his head franticly at her from behind Rose, looking very worried about something. Not knowing what he was trying to communicate to her, Martha continued to speak without missing a beat. "In the year 5,000,000,053."

Rose raised an eyebrow at this. "That's only thirty years after the time he took me there." She said in a contemplative voice. "The city of New New York?" She said looking questioningly at Martha, who nodded. "That's…interesting. Did you meet the duke of Manhattan?"

Now Martha shook her head. "He died…twenty-three years before we got there. There was a virus and he became infected, the whole Overcity did…it was the Face of Boe who saved them." She paused, a faraway look on her face. "He died saving them."

Jack, who had remained silent throughout this entire conversation, chose this moment to speak up, an unreadable expression on his face, "This 'Face of Boe'…you've mentioned him before, Martha. When Professor Yana became the Master. And you said the same thing then—you said something about the Doctor not being alone." He took the briefest of pauses to intake a breath. "Who is the Face of Boe?"

"Why, he's…" She trailed off, an uncertain expression on her face. "I don't know who he is. I only met him the one time, but…" Her head swiveled around to face the Doctor, then she turned back to look at Jack, then back to the Doctor, and back to Jack again. "Do you remember after the year that never was—we were dropping you off in Cardiff, Jack, and you said you were worried about aging. You said you were a poster boy as a child, before you joined the Time Agency. You said they called you the 'Face of Boe.'"

"And Boe referred to me as an old friend." The Doctor joined. "And he was never surprised when I didn't age, or when it was Martha who showed up and not Rose." He looked at Jack with a new expression on his face. "Captain Jack Harkness…I knew you when you were a giant head."

"I'm going to become a giant head?" Jack said, an expression on his face that clearly said that really wasn't one of his goals in life. "Seriously?"

"And you're going to die." Martha added, a pleased smile upon her face. "Isn't that great?"

At those words, the widest, and possibly happiest, smile ever spread across Jack's face.

"I'm going to die!" Jack exclaimed cheerfully, the news of his future adaptation to partial-immortality temporarily overshadowed by this news.

Romana observed this exchange silently; her face was expressionless as the four comrades discussed one of the few things they all shared in common. In her travels with the Doctor, Romana had seen some strange things; she'd witnessed rituals and ceremonies unlike anything she'd heard of before in her life; she'd even met a woman who was her exact physical duplicate in every way (and then when she'd regenerated, she'd gone and copied the physical image of another woman she and the Doctor had met on their travels). But what she was being witness to at the current moment was, in it's own way, unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Never had she known a person to be so…jubilant at the prospect of their own demise…

"I've a feeling that we're going to have a lot of catching up to do." Romana said, finally speaking up. "I've obviously missed a lot more than Rose, Jack, and Martha let on to, in the past few years we've been separated."

"The past few years?" The Doctor repeated, eyebrows raised. "More like the past few centuries."

"Like I said," Romana began with a slight nod of her head, "We have a lot to talk about."

**a/n-i am so sorry for the long wait for this update. I really meant to update ages ago, but time sort of got away from me. Then I wanted to get caught up on all of the Doctor Who episodes I missed, which I then regretted because it brought up the question of where I want this story to go. So, overall, I'm sorry for the delay in updating. Hopefully I'll be quicker with the next chapter, but I am currently experiencing computer/internet problems and i find it quite miraculous that i've even managed to post this chapter. I hope you all liked the chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N-Since I have recently become reacquainted with Torchwood, I've realized I made a few mistakes earlier on in this story. So, I'll just go back and fix some stuff. You really won't have to read it, because it's just tiny details and stuff like that. But if you really want to re-read that stuff, it basically starts at Chapter Six, which is when Romana and Rose first get to Cardiff. For those of who really don't want to go back and re-read all of that to find my changes, basically, Rose and Romana both have desks in the Hub, and that's where they are when the Doctor materializes in his Tardis. Except now, he materializes in the basement, which is NOT where Romana's office is. She doesn't even have an office, just a desk—remember that.**

**That's all, I suppose. Although, I guess I could mention it's taken me a while to update again, because I REALLY didn't get like, any feedback on the last chapter, and I figured that meant you could wait for this one. Sorry…does that sound too mean? I promise I'm not trying to be mean…I'm just trying to come up with a good excuse for my extreme laziness. Also, I haven't had Internet at home for two months, and it's been hard to update any of my stories. Moving on, nothing more to say, really. So, enjoy the chapter! **

**Chapter Eleven**

After their miraculous reunion, Romana and the Doctor spent the rest of the day and a large majority of the night sitting in the Doctor's Tardis, catching up on their years apart and reminiscing about the time they had spent together. It was just a short while ago for Romana but so many centuries ago for the Doctor.

He wanted to know all about her work at freeing the Tharils, and she wanted to learn more about the Time War, though she knew he wouldn't want to talk about it. And of course, the Doctor wanted to know how Romana had managed to come back, and how she had found Rose.

Rose sat with them as well, mostly because both she and the Doctor were quite unwilling to be separated from each other again. And also because she had been living in Romana's Tardis ever since they had left Pete's world, and Romana had yet to give Rose a copy of the key, plus she was quite averse to the idea of being separated from her own key.

"…And then Rose had the idea for us to materialize at the exact moment Earth's sun expanded and destroyed the Earth." Romana accurately concluded the story of how she had met Rose and then how they had found their way to Earth and Torchwood together.

Once she had finished speaking, the Doctor just sat there, his elbows on the console and his chin resting on his folded hands.

"So," He began, looking at Romana. "Now you have your own Tardis to-" He shuddered, "-fix properly? Though I'm not sure why you'd even want to. And you'll be leaving mine alone, then?"

Romana just rose an eyebrow at him.

"And she's a Time Lord, too." Rose added in, sounding just the tiniest bit tired after spending almost the entire night sitting up in the Doctor's Tardis. "So you aren't going to have the title 'Last of the Time Lords' anymore."

The Doctor sighed. "Yes…it is a pity, isn't it? The consequences one receives when wishing rashly…"

"Consequences." Romana scoffed. "The way I heard it you would've been ecstatic to have the Master under your care."

"Yes…well," The Doctor stuttered. "Desperate times, you know? The Master was better than no one at all. Though, mind you, I'm not sure how I would've felt having him in my head all of the time." He suddenly looked at Romana with a curious expression on his face. "How did you do it? How did you cloak your mind from me? I can't even hear you now."

"I have a good dog." Romana replied with a smirk. "He's been shielding my mind from you. I figured you might die of shock if another Time Lord suddenly popped into your head." She gave a short laugh. "That, or you'd go insane trying to convince yourself that you were going insane wishing that the others hadn't died."

"K-9!" The Doctor exclaimed, choosing to focus on that aspect of Romana's explanation. "Where is he? I miss that dog. Life in the Tardis was never really the same once he was gone."

"As I recall it," Romana began, an eyebrow raised, "K-9 and I left at the same time. I suppose that's your way of saying that you've missed me?"

Rose laughed at the clearly embarrassed expression on the Doctor's face.

"K-9 is in my Tardis." Romana added. "I'm sure he'd love a visit from you later. He hasn't really become very attached to the Torchwood team here; seems to think they're not intelligent enough for him."

"That's my good dog." The Doctor said with a wide grin. "Always going on about his superior knowledge." The grin seemed to fade just the tiniest bit. "But why can't I see him now?" He whined, suddenly sounding very much like a little child not getting their way. "I miss my dog!"

Romana rose an eyebrow, wearing an expression very similar to the one that Rose recalled seeing on her mother's face from her childhood when she had had tantrums because things had not gone the way that she wanted.

"If it's really that important to you," Romana said, rolling her eyes as she spoke, "Then I can go get him right now, if you want me to."

The Doctor's eyes grew as wide as a child's on Christmas as a grin stretched across his face. "Could you? I really do miss K-9; I haven't seen him in ages."

With another roll of her eyes, Romana turned and made her way to the Tardis doors. "I'll be back in a bit," she called over her shoulder as she went, leaving the Doctor and Rose alone in the Tardis for the first time in quite a long while.

"So," the Doctor began slowly, turning to Rose now, sounding almost at a loss for words after spending the entire night talking. "How is your family doing? How's Jackie?"

"She had a baby." Rose said with a small reminiscent smile. "Emily Tyler; she'd just turned one the day before I left. Mum's been spoiling her rotten, of course." Her eyes widened suddenly, as if she'd just remembered something. "That reminds me," She said slowly, "In the off chance you ever see my mum again, you tell her that I slapped you the moment I saw you again, got that?"

"Hmm…I suppose I'd deserve that one." The Doctor said thoughtfully.

Rose laughed but then her face grew serious once more. "Doctor," She said slowly, "Where are you planning on going now, after you leave here again?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Wherever this old girl brings me, I suppose," He said, patting the Tardis console fondly. He paused, looking uncertainly at Rose. "But you'll come with me, won't you? You aren't going to stay behind with Jack and Romana?"

As the Doctor spoke, a wide grin broke out across Rose's face. "I told you I made my choice a long time ago." She reminded him. "I'm never going to leave you."

"Excellent." The Doctor said with an answering grin. "So, what do you say we go for a little trip right now?"

Rose just rose an eyebrow at this suggestion. "What happened to missing your dog? Romana went to get him for you, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" The Doctor trailed off, his shoulders sagging a bit, before he immediately brightened up again. "In that case, I'd like to ask you one more thing before they get back here."

"And what might that be?" Rose asked, noting the way the Doctor jammed his hands into the pockets of his pants almost as if he were nervous, but not commenting on it.

"Well…" The Doctor said slowly, hesitating. And as he rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, Rose could see that he really was nervous, but she couldn't figure out why he would be. "Seeing as you are definitely never going to leave me ever again, and I don't plan on ever letting you go, I think we should do things the right way."

"The right way?" Rose repeated questioningly.

The Doctor reached out and captured both of Rose's hands in his, pulling her closer to himself as he did so.

"Rose Tyler," He began, "Will you marry me?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

After exiting the Doctor's Tardis, Romana took her time walking back up to the Hub, where she kept her own Tardis. Tosh was entering the Hub from the front entrance, coffee in hand, just as Romana came up from the basement.

"Good morning, Romana." Tosh said. "You look like you haven't slept all night."

"I haven't." Romana said, trying unsuccessfully not to yawn as the realization that she had stayed up all night talking to the Doctor finally settled in. "You missed a lot after you went home last night; the Doctor finally came back."

"That's good news." Tosh said, sitting down at her desk. "I take it that's where Rose is right now?"

Romana nodded. "You wouldn't find her anyplace else."

Tosh smiled as Romana made her way over to her Tardis, located in a previously empty corner of the Hub. She entered it to find K-9 with his sensor pressed up against the console, communicating with the Tardis.

"What a spoiled dog." Romana muttered.

"Affirmative, mistress." K-9 replied and Romana smiled.

A moment later, the two were exiting the Tardis together, Romana bringing K-9 back to see the Doctor. As she walked back across the Hub, she smiled at Tosh, who had been joined by Martha; the two women were comparing all of the rift activity data they had collected since the first unusual reading more than a month ago, now.

Within ten minutes of first leaving the Doctor's Tardis, Romana found herself standing in front of the blue police box once more. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the other thing she had fetched from inside of her own Tardis. It was a seemingly normal-looking key, but it opened the only door in the universe that was practically impenetrable. She stuck it into the lock on the Tardis door and twisted it, pushing the door open as she did so.

Stepping inside, she found the Doctor and Rose sitting side by side on the chair across from the console. She noted that their hands were entwined on the seat in between them, but made no comment, only allowing a light smile to grace her features.

"I brought your dog." Romana announced, stepping aside and allowing K-9 to roll past her into the Tardis.

"K-9!" The Doctor said brightly, jumping to his feet and rushing over to the metal dog.

"Master." The dog responded his metal tail wagging.

"Have you been a good boy for Romana? Have you, K-9?"

"Affirmative, Master."

"That's my good dog."

Rose, meanwhile, still remained sitting where she had been with the Doctor. Now, she rolled her eyes at this exchange. Only the Doctor would show this much emotion towards a robotic dog. Romana, too, was amused by the Doctor's antics with K-9. However, there was something else she had noticed, something that she found quite interesting.

"Say, Doctor?" Romana asked suddenly, bringing the Doctor out of whatever conversation he seemed to be having with her dog. "Where did you and Rose go while I was getting K-9?"

The Doctor immediately straightened up, the expression on his face trying to remain casual.

"Why would you ask that?" He asked her, not answering her question. "We haven't gone anywhere. We've been here in the Tardis the whole time you've been gone."

"Have you really?" Romana asked with a raised eyebrow. "Tell me, how long has it been since your old girl has had some maintenance?"

The Doctor looked affronted. "This 'old girl' is in peak condition, I'll have you know." He responded, giving the Tardis a tender pat on the console. It made a wheezing noise in response.

Romana's eyebrow remained raised. "Are you quite sure about that?"

"Positive."

"And I take it that you're also positive that you haven't gone anywhere in the time that I've been gone? The Tardis hasn't moved at all?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Well then, if that's your final answer, did you know that your Tardis is a whole inch to the left of where she was when I left less than ten minutes ago?" Romana questioned him.

The Doctor opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came out. Then, he turned to face Rose, who was still sitting behind him.

"I told you she had a mind of her own." He informed the blonde. "I knew we weren't in the exact same location as we were originally. She played a trick on me! My faithful Tardis…what did I ever do to her to deserve this?"

Romana's eyebrow rose even higher at this pronouncement. "So, you did go somewhere, then?"

The Doctor turned to face her again as she spoke a sheepish expression upon his face. "Maybe…"

"Where did you go, Doctor? I promise I won't be mad that you totally abandoned me so soon after I finally found you again. And don't worry, I won't mention the fact that it took me an extremely long amount of time to find you, and it wasn't my fault at all that it took so long." Romana said with a slight smile.

Wordlessly, the Doctor reached a hand out behind him toward Rose, who got up and put her own hand in his, coming to stand beside him.

"Now," The Doctor began, "Don't be upset that we didn't invite you…but Rose and I got married. We've actually been away for about a week."

Romana's expression didn't change a bit; she seemed to take it all in stride. "Is that so? Well, congratulations, then."

"You aren't going to yell at me?" The Doctor asked her, looking as if he'd been prepared for a storm. Just out of his line of sight, Rose had brought her hand to her mouth to conceal her grin.

"Why would I yell?" Romana asked him, still smiling lightly. "I'm happy for you. Now you won't try and fail miserably to keep me with you in your Tardis." The Doctor opened his mouth to cut in, but Romana continued talking. "And of course you'll say it's because we're the last two Time Lords left, but it'll be because you really want me to think you're lonely." Again, the Doctor tried to interrupt, but failed. "Because I know that the real reason you'd want me to come anywhere with you in your Tardis, is because you want me to fix all of the things you've managed to break and have no idea how to repair. Except for the chameleon circuit, of course."

This time, the Doctor waited a moment before speaking, to make sure his fellow Gallifreyan was finally finished with her lengthy speech. There was a small frown upon his face as he turned to face Rose, who barely got the smile off of her face in time.

"Did you _have_ to tell her how to find me?" He whined.


	13. Chapter 13

**a/n-it's been a while, hasn't it? I really am sorry it took so long for me to write this chapter, but nothing I wrote was really working for me. As it is, I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer-I don't anything related to Doctor Who.**

**Chapter Thirteen**

"You know, Jack," Rose began, it had been three days now since she had been reunited with the Doctor and then their subsequent marriage. Unsure of what, exactly, they were all going to do next, Rose, the Doctor, and Romana had all decided to remain in Cardiff, for the time being, at least. "I think I like the way you run things around here much better than they do back on Pete's World."

Jack determinedly stared at the computer screen before him and would not allow himself to smile at the fact that Rose still called the parallel earth that had been her home for more than a year 'Pete's World.'

"It's so much smaller," Rose continued on, determined not to be conquered by her old friend's silence. "And really, that just makes it so much more efficient. Of course, I'd also say that makes it easier to keep Torchwood a secret, but there's that whole thing about the pizza place…"

The one thing Jack wanted to know above all else right now was why, now that he was determined not to speak to her at all, Rose Tyler was making it so easy to respond? It was a question that would continue to haunt him, until he decided to break his vow of silence, at least.

"Jack." Rose said, suddenly stern. "Acting like a child isn't going to get you anywhere."

"I'm not acting like a child." He finally said, unable to stop himself. "Besides, I'm older than you."

"Only in theory." Rose responded firmly, a smile upon her face. "Let's not forget, I was technically born first. That would make me…oh…3,000 years older than you, give or take a decade."

Jack shook his head, a smile on his face. He quickly rearranged his expression into a frown. "I'm still mad at you, you know. Stop trying to get me to talk to you."

"But it's working, isn't it?" Rose asked, smiling at him brightly.

The only response she got was a roll of the eyes from Jack. At this, Rose sighed, and sat down in the chair across from him.

"Jack," She began slowly, "It was just a wedding—" Jack glared at her, "—You really didn't miss all that much."

"Rose, let me ask you something, and I expect an honest answer." Jack said, finally looking her in the eye as he leaned back in his chair. "How many people on this planet can you call right this instant and not have to give an explanation for contacting them now, when you were declared dead after the Battle of Canary Wharf more than a year ago?"

Rose was silent for a moment. "Six." She finally replied

"And who might those people be?" Jack continued.

"You, Martha, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, and Ianto." Rose listed. "Well, and the Doctor, so seven, then. Romana doesn't have a phone."

"And of course, all of those people are here at Torchwood right now, too." Jack pointed out. "And easily accessible to you if you might need to contact any of them for any reason."

"Yes…" Rose agreed, not seeing what he was getting at.

"And we were all at Torchwood—with you, I might add—when you and the Doctor decided to go off and get married just a few days ago." Jack finished. "Yet none of us were invited. Rose," he continued in a softer voice, "We're your only friends here. And it really wouldn't be something you'd need to cover up if your wedding had occurred on an alien planet, or in the future, or something along those lines. Of course," Jack said, suddenly thoughtful. "I have absolutely no idea when or where you and the Doctor decided to get hitched."

"I probably shouldn't tell you that." Rose finally decided. "It would probably upset you."

"Try me." Jack responded.

"Well," Rose began, "We got married in Peru. I think it was just a few months in the future from now." She said pointedly. "It wasn't an overly large ceremony; just a few close friends, you know."

Jack narrowed his eyes at her, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on the desk. "A few months from now?" Rose nodded. "And you had friends there?" Another nod. "And it wasn't on that parallel world of yours, was it." A shake of her head, now.

After a moment of contemplative silence, Jack collapsed back into his chair with a broad smile upon his face.

"That's rather sneaky of you two. Abandoning me here while you go off and get married, and then you invite my future self to your wedding." He declared with a shake of his head. "Honestly though…Peru? Why _Peru_?"

"What have you got against Peru?" Rose asked, defensively.

"Why is Peru so great that you just _had_ to get married there?" Jack countered.

Rose smiled. "It was the Doctor really. He told the Tardis to find an old friend of his: Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge_-_Stewart. The worked together back when the Doctor worked for UNIT." Rose gave a small laugh, her gaze far away. "The poor Brigadier. First he didn't even recognize the Doctor, and then when the Doctor finally convinced him of who he was, the Brigadier had missed his flight back to London. Of course, he was more than happy to stay for the ceremony, but he flat out refused a ride back here in the Doctor's Tardis, or Romana's." Rose's eyes refocused on Jack. "He seemed to think he'd get mixed up in some crazy scheme to take over the Earth…again. And he doesn't trust you Torchwood lot one bit. Poor man, now he's stranded in Peru…or, at least, he will be, in a few months."

"Well," Jack said, "I look forward to experiencing all of that in a few months. In fact, it sounds like fun."

"I'm sure it will be." Rose said, standing up as she did so. "So, I take it I'm forgiven, then?"

"Am I going to get an invitation to save the date?" Jack questioned.

"I'll have Ianto leave a post-it on your desk." Rose replied.

"I suppose that'll have to do." Jack said with a sigh, standing up as he did so. Walking around the desk separating them, Jack offered his arm to Rose. "Care to join me for some lunch, Mrs. Doctor?"

"Never call me that again. Really." Rose told him, standing up as well now. "Just call me Rose."

Jack sighed again. "If I must."

The pair walked arm-in-arm down into the hub, still talking as they did so. The Doctor looked up when he heard them.

"Romana's been waiting for you, Rose." He said without preamble, once they were within hearing range. "She wants to talk to you—both of you. But you first, Rose."

Rose frowned and let go of Jack's arm as she did so, taking a step closer to the Doctor. "Is everything alright?"

The Doctor merely shrugged, his face expressionless, immediately clueing Rose in that he knew exactly what Romana wanted to talk to her about, not matter what he said to the contrary.

"Just talk to Romana; she said she had something important to tell you."

He nodded towards the other side of the Hub, where Romana sat talking animatedly with Tosh. As Rose walked towards Romana, she tried to figure out what it was that the last Time Lady had to tell her that was so important. Rose quickly gave up, because as far as she could tell, Romana wasn't acting any differently than she normally did.

"Rose." Romana said with a smile when the blonde woman was just a foot away. She stood up, turning back to Tosh as she did so. "You and I are going to have to have a long conversation about that one day."

"I'll be sure to remember that." Tosh replied.

With one last smile, Romana turned back to Rose.

"Would you like to get some fresh air?" Romana asked suddenly. "It's feeling just a bit stuffy down here."

"Sure." Rose said with a shrug.

Once they were out in the open air, Romana breathed deeply and spun around, eyes closed and arms out like a child.

"It's days like these that I miss Gallifrey the most." She confided to Rose, indicating the sun shining down upon them. There was a faraway look in her eyes. "It was beautiful there…" She smiled to herself now. "And to think, there was a time, oh, just a few months ago for me still, that I never wanted to go back there ever again. And now…I can't."

"I'm sorry." Rose said slowly. "I suppose I know how you feel, a bit. I'm probably never going to see my mum or Pete or Emily ever again. Though, that's not the same as losing a whole planet…"

"Don't be sorry." Romana said with a wave of her hand. "If I recall correctly, _you_ were the one to finally end the Time War. _I_ should be thanking _you_. If my home planet had to be destroyed, at least you helped make sure it was for a good cause."

"Just don't do it in front of Jack." Rose replied. "How I ended the war is still a bit of a sore spot for him. Not that I can remember any of it…" She paused slightly before continuing, "Speaking of Jack, what is it that you wanted to tell me?" She grinned slightly. "I'm betting it wasn't to talk about the past."

"The past, the future…" Romana said slowly, still gazing up towards the sun. "It's all the same to me." She finally turned to face the blonde woman beside her. "Rose, I'm leaving. It's been fun helping Torchwood, but I think they can handle themselves. I, on the other hand, made a vow to myself to help the universe…to not look down upon it and do nothing." Romana grabbed Rose's hands and looked into her eyes. "You understand, don't you, Rose?"

"'Course." Rose said with a shrug. "It's what you've got to do, I 'spose."

"I'll visit you and the Doctor, of course." Romana continued. "I can't go letting the Doctor forget that he's not the Last of the Time Lords anymore."

Rose smiled. "Having you back in this universe is going to be great for his ego, I can tell. Just make sure you spread the word that there's another Time Lord around now."

Romana grinned. "I don't think that's going to be a problem at all."

**a/n-It's been a few months since my last update, and since then, I've posted a Doctor Who one-shot entitled Running in case anyone was interested.**

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**a/n-I really want to apologize for how long it's taken me to post this chapter. It's been almost a year, and I started writing this chapter almost immediately after completing chapter thirteen. However, this chapter is now done, and with it the story is finally complete. I hope you like it!**

**Chapter Fourteen**

"I never wanted your phone." The Doctor stated firmly with a small, meaningless glare in Martha's direction as he clutched the console of the stationary Tardis, as if afraid it might take off without warning once more.

"I didn't know you stole your hand back from Jack." Rose said at the same time, releasing the console and going over to inspect the Torchwood-inscribed jar. "How'd you manage that one without him noticing?"

Obviously feeling secure in their lack of further movement through time and space, the Doctor also released his hold on his old ship. "Just now." He nodded his head towards the other side of the console room. "I took a little side trip once we'd finished helping Doctor Jones over there invade U.N.I.T. from the inside."

"Well it worked, didn't it?" Martha demanded, also letting go of her death grip. "And we got rid of those Sontarons as well, didn't we?"

"Yeah, probably just like he always gets rid of all of the Daleks once and for all." Rose replied, jerking her head in the Doctor's direction.

It had been several months since the Doctor had returned to the Torchwood Hub to find Rose there, waiting for him, and their subsequent marriage. Since then, the two of them had been travelling constantly in the Tardis. Most recently, they had been on Earth. After the wedding ceremony in Peru that Rose had promised Jack, she and the Doctor had been set to travel the universe. Before they could go, however, they received a phone call from Martha, who had returned to England in the meantime.

Abandoning the Brigadier in Peru, they had helped both Martha and U.N.I.T. to foil a plot to make the planet a breeding ground for Sontarons. Once they had done this, Martha had gone with them to the Tardis, for just one more look, as she had said, when it had suddenly and without warning taken off. Now they were who knows where, who knows when, on who knows what planet.

"I only said that the one time." The Doctor insisted now. "And besides, it was thousands of years in the future."

"There was that other time a couple of years ago, too." Rose reminded him with a faint smile. "Don't tell me you've forgotten that?"

"What other time?" The Doctor demanded.

"Canary Wharf." Rose replied.

"Ok…so maybe I have said that more than once." The Doctor admitted slowly. "But it's not my fault if the Sontarons show up again. I never said they were gone forever."

"I think we should check outside, now." Martha said with a barely suppressed laugh as she moved towards the door.

"Excellent idea." The Doctor said.

Things might have turned out differently if they had stayed inside the Tardis and returned to Earth and Martha's waiting fiancé. If they hadn't gone outside, they wouldn't have gotten caught in the midst of a war between the humans and the Hath that had been raging for generations on the planet Messaline. The Doctor's hand wouldn't have been forced into the progenation machine, and Jenny never would have been born. And if Jenny had never been born, she never could have been killed.

Jenny had been a part of their lives for so short a time, but she had managed to effect them all so much.

Rose had known that the Doctor had had an entire life before he'd ever met her. She'd met Sarah Jane Smith, whom the Doctor had traveled with before Rose had even been born. She'd heard his stories of Gallifrey, the home planet he had practically been forced to destroy. And along the way, she'd even heard him mention the family he'd once had. But he had lost that family. And now she had just witnessed him lose yet another child. But she hadn't been just the Doctor's daughter, she had been Rose's daughter, too. There wasn't any blood relation, but Jenny had been her daughter, if only for a short while.

The Doctor and Rose made their way back to the Tardis by themselves, attempting to leave the Source and all of the problems it had caused behind them. Martha had told them she'd be back in a bit and was staying to check out all of the wounded that still remained from the seven-day war.

After climbing through and over piles of rubble to reach the Tardis, they had barely made inside when the Doctor simply stopped and sat down on the floor just inside the door. Silently, Rose sat down beside him and leaned back against the door, closing her eyes wearily.

"I hate that hand." The Doctor said after almost five minutes of silence.

"It's a part of you; you can't hate it." Rose replied.

"Well then I shouldn't have taken it back from Jack."

"You had no way of knowing any of this would happen." Rose said firmly. "Don't you dare go blaming yourself for anything. Cobb is the one at fault here, not you. Do you understand?"

"We should find Martha." The Doctor stated. "She probably wants to be getting home."

"We should stay for the funeral." Rose said softly. "Say goodbye."

The Doctor merely nodded, saying nothing out loud.

And in this case it was good that he said nothing, for if he had argued and insisted they leave instantly. If they had left, they would have missed the miracle that had occurred, either as a result of the Source itself or maybe Jenny's unique DNA. Either way, staying on Messaline for a short while longer proved to be the best move the Doctor had ever made. Somehow, someway Jenny had been reborn and, while the Doctor now had a knowing look in his eyes, overshadowed by the jubilant grin on his face, he wasn't saying anything on the subject.

"Some dad you are." Jenny said, back in the Tardis, her arms wrapped tightly around the Doctor. "Mum says you were going to leave me behind."

"I changed my mind." Was the Doctor's reply.

"I'm glad." Jenny stated, releasing him and taking a step back. "So, where're we headed now?"

"I'm going home." Martha said firmly. "For real this time. No more side trips."

"And then we'll run?" Jenny asked hopefully.

"Then we'll run." The Doctor repeated.

Once Martha had been dropped off at home, back on Earth, Jenny turned to the Doctor with an excited grin on her face.

"So, dad, where are we off to next?" She asked.

"Well, we're definitely going to need to find Romana before we send out the family Christmas card." He replied thoughtfully. "Otherwise she's going to track me down and quite possibly kill me."

"Who's Romana?" Jenny asked, slightly confused.

"The only other Time Lady in existence." Rose said. "She's the one who got me back to this universe and back to your dad."

"What?" Jenny demanded, now totally confused.

The Doctor sighed, already walking around the console, flicking switches as he went.

"We aren't going to be going anywhere for a while." He said, looking resigned. "This is all going to take some explaining."

Rose sat across from the console, a small smile forming on her face as the Doctor attempted to explain to Jenny just about everything there was to know about Time Lords, from ancient Gallifreyen history down to operating the Tardis. To her credit though, Jenny appeared to be keeping up with her father's ramblings, even as they constantly changed directions.

The smile faded a bit from Rose's face as watching Jenny and the Doctor together reminded her of herself with Pete. In the past few months she had tried as hard as she could not to think about the family she had left behind in the parallel universe, and it wasn't because she didn't miss them—because she did. It was because she didn't want to miss them; it would hurt too much. Though she missed them all, it was better for Rose not to dwell on the past.

Because Rose had found the Doctor and now they had Jenny. They were a family now, and it truly was home.


End file.
